Paper has many lofty uses, but today we’re focusing on the bottom.
If you’ve been following Kramer’s Eye for a while it should come as no surprise that again, the Chinese were the first to use papers to clean their behinds.
In 589 AD the scholar-official Yan Zhitui (531–591) wrote about the use of toilet paper:
“Paper on which there are quotations or commentaries from the Five Classics or the names of sages, I dare not use for toilet purposes.”
In Europe, in the 18th century this was exactly what people did with writing they didn’t approve of - they wiped their bum with it.
A 1792 French Revolutionary caricature, depicting the French population using the Monarchist Brunswick Manifesto as toilet paper.
Toilet paper as we know it dates back to the mid 19th century, when inventor Joseph Gayetty introduced his ‘medicated paper for the water closet’.
In the early days of loo roll people used it at their own peril: as late as the 1930s, a selling point of the Northern Tissue company was that their toilet paper was "splinter free".
And since the invention of the toilet roll holder the world has been divided in two camps: should it go over or under?
Today we’re focusing on paper that cleans.
Toilet paper, tissue paper, kitchen paper.
It might surprise you but these can make gorgeous subjects for still lifes - especially if you use natural lighting.
Capture the cleansing paper in your life and share it using the hashtag #kramerseye on Twitter or Instagram.