Urban Deposit
2009

Litter, trash, refuse---this is the flotsam we all leave behind somewhere and in some way. Over the past couple of years I have been tracking pedestrian waste and photographing those items close in at ground level as detail shots. The tidbits I find lead me through an investigative process and are the basis for an ongoing story---they are clue-makers that form a narrative or visual portrait specific to an area, in this case the Crossroads of Kansas City.

The Artboards presented a unique opportunity to broadcast this genre of images to a broad audience. With that option in mind I drew from Missouri Bank's example of addressing environmental needs incorporated in the redesign of their Crossroads building and their conscious effort to pass those ideas forward through the use of billboards printed on Ecoflex, an environmentally friendly outdoor material. I chose to photograph throwaways that in some form could either be retained and reused by any of us or could be recycled through industry sources. Those items, such as plastic or glass bottles, plastic cups, paper goods as well as discarded wrappers from packaged foods and snacks make up Urban Deposit. They were all found on Crossroads streets and sidewalks within a four block area.

Urban Deposit (pdf)