7 DAYS OF GARBAGE

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve wondered about garbage - where does it go and what happens when we run out of places to put it? With 7 Days of Garbage, I call attention to the crisis of consumption by personalizing it. I asked family, friends, neighbors, and other acquaintances to save their trash for a week and then lie down and be photographed in it. I included my family, wanting my 8-year-old son to understand that we’re contributing to the problem, too. I asked people to include their recyclables because much of what is designated recyclable, particularly plastic, doesn’t make it to the recycling plant (much of it winds up in our oceans). I created the settings for the pictures in my yard in Altadena, California: water, forest, beach and snow. No sphere of our collective home is safe from garbage. I see these portraits as instant archeology, preserving the legacy of consumer culture in which we are at once victims and perpetrators.