Dead Horse Bay

Loosened landfill washes up on the shores of Dead Horse Bay, dominated by the glass detritus of a lost age. Led there by a seasoned mudlarker, I find beauty, and a little dark humor, in the tossed-off trash of our culture.

My subject in these not-so-still lifes is ocean-loosened 1950s landfill collected from Dead Horse Bay, Brooklyn. My guide was the ecological restorationist and retired New York City Parks Department Chief Naturalist, Mike Feller. On trips to the site we joined fellow scavengers combing the junk for treasures, and came home with photos and bags of fabulous relics.

These works find the beauty in what is cast away, as they draw attention to the condition of our world and the effects of a disposable culture. Objects floating, falling, or flying in a kind of suspended animation add lightness and humor to an otherwise serious concern.