Over the last couple of years I have been looking at pedestrian
waste---litter, trash and "stuff"---the kind of things we all leave
behind somewhere and in some way and then photograph those items
close up. For me, the tidbits I find are pieces of a story---they
are clue-makers that form a narrative or visual portrait specific
to an area. The Artboards present a unique opportunity to broadcast
images to a lot of people from different vantage points so with that
in mind I drew from Missouri Bank's example of addressing environmental
needs through the redesign of their Crossroads building and their
conscious effort to pass those ideas forward through the Artboards
by printing on Ecoflex, an environmentally friendly billboard material.
I chose to photograph throwaways that in some form could be reused
by us or recycled through industry. Those items such as plastic bottles
and cups, paper goods, discarded wrappers from packaged foods and
snacks make up Urban Deposit and were all found on the streets or
sidewalks in close proximity to the Crossroads. I put the Artboards together
using a method that combines repetition and resizing which I like
to call first impression obscurity. The images on the left board
are recognizable but gradually transition to smaller repeated images
on the right board resembling a textured and woven pattern. I did
this intentionally to incorporate subject matter touching on overuse
of disposables as well as the in's and the out's of recycling that follow coupled
with creative innovation emerging from reusable industries that produce
viable products and materials from recycled goods.