An interesting project I came across at The Photographer's Gallery in London recently involving the plastic bag. The gallery is collecting images of plastic bags from London and the surrounding areas, inviting people to submit their own photography of found plastic bags.
The concept both highlights society's habits of consuming, disposing and lack of recycling and see such a number of images, most nowhere near as artistic as those above, of plastic bags strewn across streets, in parks, on fences etc really highlighted our over-use of this everyday item. Furthermore, I found the gallery's approach to the project as a means by which to encourage participation and bring protography into everyday life interesting as it is a means by which the general public have a platform for expression. The collection is being shown until September 2nd at The Photographer's Gallery, London.
4 comments:
These images are particularly interesting as they induce a feeling of drama into a seemingly dull subject. The photos appear to be professionaly taken or enhanced to emphasise this feeling, which maybe defeats some of the purpose behind the sponteneity of disovering a found object.
The idea of inviting the general public to send in their photos is a great way of uniting people for a common cause and as you say, "highlights society's habits of consuming, disposing and lack of recycling". This is a good way of raising awareness of an environmental issue and also gives the public the satisfaction that they have contibuted in some way.
Similar work has been produced by Jim Brogden, which can be found at http://www.terranullius.co.uk/terranullius.swf
He harnesses the concept of 'Terra Nullius', meaning no man's land or deserted space, which draws striking similarities to the concept behind the plastic bag photography.
I really like this work. I think it proves that with a creative eye anything has the potential of becoming an interesting subject, or a stimulating source of inspiration.
when i first saw this i also thought this work was very similar to jim brogdens work. i think here, the use of something so simple that we engage with nearly everyday of our lives has given much inspiration in shape and form and it has produced some great imagary.
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