Finding Beauty in the Discarded

Photography as a Spiritual Practice

Guest Writer: George Taylor

Finding Beauty in the Discarded

Cold Storage Building Philadelphia on discarded Amazon Prime Container

Fells Point Baltimore on Slate

With the advent of smartphones and computers, most images remain as digital files, rarely making it to print. The small percentage of printed images are printed on paper and can be reproduced without limit, each an exact duplicate of the last print. Over the last few years, I have begun to explore printing images on surfaces of discarded and found objects. As the image merges with an old shingle, a piece of driftwood, or discarded cardboard, the result is a one-of-a-kind object with characteristics of both the image and the substrate. While the same image can be placed on several different surfaces, the resulting object will differ in complexity and feel. 

The surfaces I have chosen are found objects discarded because they no longer can fulfill their original purpose. Using them as photographic objects allows a new and different meaning for each of these discarded fragments. The fragment changes the image just as much as the photograph transforms the fragment into something new.

As we get older, it can feel like we are becoming the discarded fragments of a life once lived. These pieces of driftwood and old cardboard remind me that we can all find a new purpose as we transition from one phase of life into a new one. There is always something we can do to contribute. It does not have to be monumental. Just finding beauty in discarded fragments can be enough to make a positive difference. 

For more images on discarded fragments, please visit https://taylorimaging.smugmug.com/Discarded-Fragments/

Images:

1-Cold Storage Building, Philadelphia. Printed on a discarded Amazon shipping box found across the street.

2-Fells Point, Baltimore. Printed on a fragment of roofing slate from Baltimore.

3-Moulton Barn, Wyoming. Printed on plywood fragment found on Cape Cod.

4-Wood End Lighthouse, Provincetown. Printed on found driftwood from Penobscot Bay, Maine.

George Taylor

Moulton Barn, Moose, Wyoming on Cape Cod Plywood Fragment

Wood End Light, Provincetown on Driftwood from Penobscot Bay Maine