The Dumpsters of Oberlin 78
May 14, 2018
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This entry was posted on May 14, 2018 by Linda Grashoff. It was filed under Abstracts, Built Environment, Dumpsters and Trashcans, Surfaces and was tagged with abstract, dead flowers, dumpster, Oberlin, photography.
Romancing Reality 
This one takes your dumpster photography to a whole new level Linda.
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May 14, 2018 at 2:00 PM
I feel pretty risky about this one. I doubt I’ll do many more like it. But I saw the flowers and leaves as decoration on an abstract background and liked that idea. It really doesn’t belong in this series, and maybe I should have not included it among the other dumpster photographs. Would you be willing to give me a fuller critique?
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May 14, 2018 at 2:08 PM
The flowers and leaves add another layer of narrative interest. The image is not only a lovely still life of sorts, but a story of life and death: how once beautiful objects that have given us great pleasure end up in a container for trash.
I too will be interested in seeing a new series with this as a theme.
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May 14, 2018 at 10:52 PM
Thank you for your thoughtful comment, Alan. I think you got me with “another layer of narrative interest.” You’re absolutely right. It is a different story from the one I’ve been telling with the totally abstract images, which are only about the dumpster as a physical object. Now I just have to hope more people throw away their flowers in dumpsters.
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May 15, 2018 at 12:45 PM
I think it is a good one. Would definitely want to see more in this way.
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May 14, 2018 at 5:00 PM
Thank you. I have seen other dumpsters with flowers thrown in them but did not photograph them. I think I will start a new series of dumpsters with flowers.
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May 14, 2018 at 7:33 PM
Not a series of dumpsters with plastic trash bags?
🙂
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May 14, 2018 at 10:34 PM
No, I don’t think so, Alan. But we’ll see.
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May 15, 2018 at 8:59 AM
Good idea!
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May 15, 2018 at 4:13 AM
Thanks.
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May 15, 2018 at 9:00 AM
Of course you know I love this one, and to me, it’s a perfectly natural extension of what you’ve been doing, but I understand that it’s a different subject than the images of just the dumpster itself. And I feel confident that if it isn’t discarded plant material, you’ll still consider it. 🙂 I was picturing you reaching high and leaning over some tall dumpster, but I guess some are short enough that it wasn’t quite that dramatic.
BTW one interesting thing that happens for me with this one is that the background looks vertical more than horizontal for some reason, so there’s a feeling of the flowers falling, yet you know they’re not, and that’s compelling. I think the vertical look is from the vertical markings on the dumpster, bit also it’s the masterful way you composed the shot, with some strong vertical stems and leaves, as if they are tumbling.
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May 15, 2018 at 5:28 PM
Arghhh. I just lost my reply. So, to start over: I hate to tell you, Lynn, but there is no mastery in my making the dumpster side look vertical. It was. Or rather it was slightly slanted. This is the side over which things slosh into the truck. Apparently the plant material didn’t tumble out when it should have. Lucky for me. It’s caught on the texture of the dumpster wall. BTW, this dumpster, like many others I have photographed, is about four or four and a half feet high, so it’s pretty easy to see most of the inside. I have to hold the camera out high in front of me to photograph the bottoms of them, though. OK, so it looks like I have another series going on.
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May 15, 2018 at 8:55 PM
Wow, that surprised me! Even so, I still think there’s a wonderful sense of not knowing which side is up. Thanks for reminding me about the size – I keep picturing bigger containers for some reason, but the one you showed recently belied that. Yes, another series! 😉
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May 17, 2018 at 3:12 PM
That’s another thing I seem to do: make photographs that are ambiguous. Usually it’s about scale. I should tell you that some of the dumpsters I have photographed are much bigger—like the one outside the Dollar General store. That one was six feet high at least.
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May 18, 2018 at 8:41 PM