“Wastelands” A personal project by Simon Puschmann

WASTELANDS

For this personal project, a series called “Wastelands”, Simon wanted to highlight the scope and permanence of trash produced by various metropolitan cities. By transforming garbage into an elegant exercise of composition, form and line, the disposed waste begins to create an unusual portrait of each respective place. Through each urban centre’s trash, a picture begins to take shape that reflects unique consumption patterns and habits.

By elevating these disposed materials, they become mediations on the larger global issue of excessive waste. This series is intended to be a visual critique of the crisis our planet is facing. With more and more trash accumulating in our environment, Simon was compelled to make a statement through his lens. His intent for this work is to resonate with viewers, raise awareness about the global trash issue, and inspire the audience to reduce their own personal consumption of trash and single-use plastics.

He chose the technique known as “knolling” – a process of arranging objects at 90-degree angles and photographing them from above. By utilizing the same setup, the same lens, the same distance, the same surface and the same collection technique, a comparable series begins to form allowing us to objectively contrast and evaluate individual cities. Not only does this create a distinctive visual language and is symmetrically pleasing to the eye, using the subject matter of disposed trash; creates a powerful and urgent juxtaposition.

“Wastelands” is a long-term initiative which will take encompass cities such as Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and hopefully many more over the next few years. He is currently looking for a partner to help him gain more traction for this project.

Feel free to contact us if you have an idea of how we can amplify this project further – perhaps you have a site you would like to post this to?