Record collector and photographer Eilon Paz began this extensive project, Dust & Grooves, as a way to document passionate vinyl album collectors within their most natural environments–their record rooms. For almost six years, Paz has traveled across America and throughout the world to locate some of the most enthusiastic collectors and their most extensive collections. The artist describes his subjects as “people like you and me who are doing amazing work by collecting and archiving music. They’re saving our heritage in a way.”
His series of photographs, now a 416-page book entitled Dust & Grooves: Adventures in Record Collecting, offers an intimate glimpse into the world of these music connoisseurs. In one collection, shelves bend at the center from the weight of the vinyl; in another, the records are stored alphabetically in boxes; while still another features albums organized in a colorful rainbow sequence.
“You collect these things, these musical artifacts that have so much impact on you,” says Paz, “It becomes something of a habit but music is just pure passion that changes your life. If it stays there on the shelf, yeah, you can say this was my first record, I was naive. Or I like pop music and then suddenly metal. What happened there? If they stay there they can tell your story like milestones in your life.”
