Recycling my Junk
2013-16
Sometimes I buy things and throw them away.
Paper towels. Party favors. Tiny flashlights.
Things like that.
Here in the First World, we do it all the time. Our cultural artifacts are disposable.
Sure, we recycle our glass bottles and tin cans, but that's about it. If your DVD player breaks, you simply chuck it in the trash. (We're good at breaking things, but not so good at fixing them.)
I'm also something of a pack rat.
You can only imagine the accumulation of useless crap that faced me, as I chose to move out of my studio after eight years.
Piles were everywhere. An over-stuffed garbage bag leaned in the middle of the room, like a local drunk. The waste paper basket next to my computer sat, unemptied, for almost a year.
Rubbish. Junk.
Call it what you will, it was occupying the majority of my workspace. The truth is I left the studio because I couldn't afford it anymore. Too much cash for how little I used it. But the light was so beautiful. That's where I made my best work. It hurt a lot to give that up, I assure you.
The resulting photographs represent two parallel processes: my desire to maximize the value of my otherwise worthless goods, and my need to squeeze one last bit of glory from that gorgeous light, before it was gone forever. In the end, the project was more emotional than I had anticipated. Fortunately, it made me feel much better about having to leave.