Found

By Jay Pfeifer

Circulation..........25,000
Date of Birth..........2001
Frequency..........Irregularly
Price..........$5
Natural Habitat..........Originally sighted blowing across streets, collecting in doorways. Now, sits in captivity on coffee tables and nighstands and in backpacks.
Found.gifTHE melting snow of springtime always reveals some surprises. Amid the puddles, slush and discarded plastic bags, there are treasures to be had. Some have monetary value; say, a quarter or a MetroCard. But the most interesting things are the ones with the least redeemable value. The city is awash in misplaced notes, letters and lists—fragments of other peoples’ lives. I used to ignore the flotsam that collects in doorways, against chain-link fences and at subway stations. However, now that I’ve read Found, I stoop to pick up just about anything that flutters across my path.

The idea behind Found is a simple one. People (or “Found operatives”) from around the country mail found notes and pictures (or in one rare case, a shoe) to the headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There, the Found team, led by self-appointed “point guard” Davy Rothbart, founder and editor, publishes them at a semiregular, near glacial pace. So far, he has dropped just three issues in as many years.

Taking a page from the world of ’zine publishing, Rothbart and his team at Found recreate the intimacy of seeing something unintended by taping the actual notes to a dark background. Crumpled letters with wrinkled, torn edges are still rough, and the handwriting (constantly on the edge of legibility) is reproduced verbatim. The black-and-white magazine looks like a scrapbook put together by someone armed only with a pair of dull scissors, a roll of transparent tape and a copier. Rothbart provides little context with each find, including only a short title, the location of the find and the name of the finder. The thrill of discovery is still remarkably intact thanks to this rough, hand-hewn design.

Even though Found owes its existence to the physical world of pen and paper, reading the magazine is an exercise of imagination. The found items that Rothbart publishes “all have a sense of narrative,” he said. “I look for things that are surprising. Things that have a sense of a story. It might be only a hint of a story, but it is there.”

The magazine is filled with the rushed scrawls of angry lovers. A woman thinking that she has just caught her husband cheating writes: “Mario, I fucking hate you. You said you had to work then whys your car HERE at HER place??” Despite her righteous anger, she ends her note with this: “PS - Page me later.” The note typifies the charming, contradictory nature of human behavior that animates the pages within Found.

Other pieces show an unintentionally humorous self-seriousness. A full sheet of legal paper written in neat, hesitant capital letters says, “If you took my detergent I’m sure it was a mistake so I’m not mad YET. But your pushing me and I push back so it better be back f-ing soon.”

Found counters every laugh, however, with a chill. In the first issue, the magazine reproduces a handbill posted by a woman offering a reward for a “copy of video George Bush and members of Congress had taken of me making love; they sought to thwart my fraudproof national telephone voting system.” It’s this kind of note that makes the magazine so rich. The narrative that Rothbart looks for is all too present here. Like reading someone’s diary, the fun can disappear when such dire material crops up. It is important to note that there is no trace of condescension or derision. By simply presenting these bizarre finds as they appear, Found lets the material speak for itself.

Rothbart’s idea has picked up a lot of steam since the first issue. He and his friends started the magazine with 800 copies and now he estimates that the first two issues have sold 40,000 copies apiece. The third issue hit in March with a first-run printing of 25,000 copies. “It’s stunning that it’s taken off,” he said. “I’m excited, but I’m like a steward of this project. People really are a part of the magazine. I think of this as a giant collaborative art project.” It seems that an entire nation of people with shoeboxes full of found notes were waiting for an outlet. A steady stream of 5-10 daily letters from every state and every continent fills Rothbart’s mailbox and threatens to overtake his basement.

You can find a copy of Found by checking the list of retailers on the Found Web site: Found Magazine. And then, don’t be surprised if you start to notice the little scraps of paper stuck in nooks and crannies. As Rothbart wrote in the first issue, “Four out of five are duds, but that fifth one will keep you looking.”