Beautiful Garbage - Midyear

Gregg Segal :: from the "7 Days of Garbage" project

Have you ever heard the statement "one man's trash is another man's treasure?" Artists are constantly seeing the beautiful aspects of items, places, people, and objects that other people find ugly, rundown, and even gross. In this project you are going to focus on finding trash/garbage/objects that are forgotten and photograph them in a beautiful manner. The could be done with angles, lighting, or how you set up your photo. The trick is to make your viewer see something beautiful out of something that is being discarded. To elevate garbage to the level of art. 

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Assignment:
You must photograph 50 digital frames that focus on making garbage look beautiful. Think about how to make trash look interesting using angles and lighting and also think conceptually about the idea of detritus and trash. This could be beautiful images of garbage cans, collecting alike items to make a design, or even taking high-key fashion images of people surrounded by or dressed in trash. You can photograph people, objects, or even just the design that is created by the things we throw out. 

Steps:

• Think about all of the things we use on a daily basis, and how much garbage we create
• This can be a lighter take of this idea, or you can be making a statement about our "throw out" culture
• These can be portraits, landscapes, still lives, or even macro images
• How about adding items to the physical print...making the print itself "garbage"
  

Resources: Beautiful Trash Pinboard