Your Grabage, Your Community

All of the trash that sits on the ground or on the side of the road, what happens to that? Who picks it up? Who leaves it there? The point that I want to make with my photo essay is that it is not that hard to throw away your trash in a trash can that is what they are there for. There is a nationwide problem with people dumping their trash on the ground, whether throwing it out the window of their car or just dropping on the ground while walking. What these people do not realize is that there is no reason to be dumping trash on the ground; they do not see that they are ruining their own home.

I will be focusing on the litter that sits on the side of the roads along Williamstown and surrounding area streets. I have lived in this area my entire life and for as long as I can remember seeing trash lying around is normal it is hard to imagine that people cannot take the few seconds that it takes to throw out their trash where it belongs. Also I would like to include the consequences for littering and what damage the litter causes. This area could look a thousand times better if people did their own part and cleaned up after themselves.

The images that I want to capture will hopefully inflict a series of emotions on those who see them. I hope to get people to feel shame, disgust, horror, and I hope to be able to inspire people to step up and make a difference in their community. I want to capture these pictures in black and white, or in infrared, or both. I picked these because the black and white adds effect to the dread that littering leaves on the community. My second option the infrared I picked because it would display the subject as toxic and poisoning, a symbol for the rot and decay of the community.

I have decided to use my cell phone camera, I made that decision by coming to the conclusion that most people are paying more attention to what is going on with their phone then where they are dumping their trash. To capture something that is ruining the world we live in with a device that is supposed to make the world a better place will leave a hint of irony in the mind of the audience, as well as being exactly what it is supposed to be, by reaching people who dump their trash in turn hoping that next time they toss that trash in to a trash can or a recycling bin. This gives the new technology of the world to prove that they can better the world.