Junk 2005-2008
Over the last several years I photographed the same environment—a junkyard of cars. Within this environment the automobile is processed and recycled after its original purpose has been lost due to age, mechanical failure, or an unfortunate event. With this project I am interested in how the photograph formally redefines and reinvents the automobile’s sculptural qualities and makes reference to personal loss; how the automobile is cut into pieces and stacked, how a tragedy is recycled into spare parts, how an individual or family is defined by what is lost or abandoned, and how these remains are finally consumed by the environment or eventually discarded by the junk dealer. For these photographs I return to the same place again and again to record the changes take place in a single, definable space—a piece of property that is roughly three acres in size and piled high with junk.