Offerings from Two Dumpsters
July 17, 2022
Five photographs of dumpsters have been waiting a few weeks now for their turn to be posted. Yesterday I added to the collection when I visited my favorite dumpster in all of Oberlin. It’s time to set them all free. Numbers 1 through 6 are the new photos, 7 through 11 the old ones.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Romancing Reality 
That’s a good progression of colors, with rich red predominant toward the end. The first view made me think of the British painter Turner. The second picture could almost be an abstract take on dry grass stalks.
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July 17, 2022 at 3:12 PM
Thanks, Steve. I don’t consciously strive for anything except a nice abstract, but if people come up with associations, that’s fine with me.
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July 18, 2022 at 10:44 AM
Hi linda,
This series never ceases to surprise and delight me. It’s hard to pick favorites but I chose one and six. I can’t help but think there is a book here. But I’m sure that’s something one only does once.
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July 18, 2022 at 1:08 AM
Glad to know you’re still enjoying these, Leslie. You’ve seen plenty over the years. As for a book, well, many people author more than one book, but I’m probably not one of them. The closest I have gotten to putting together a book of dumpster photos is the short article I wrote for our little literary magazine: https://lindagrashoff.com/other-files/unintended-consequences-the-accidental-beauty-of-dumpsters/. (BTW, the first and last photos in the article are of the same dumpster shown in this post’s first six images.) If I ever come up with more words to go with the photographs, I could consider a dumpster book, but it would be much less ambitious than the one about iron bacteria.
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July 18, 2022 at 10:59 AM
I don’t know anyone (you being the exception) who uses the words favorite and dumpster together. But isn’t it nice for the rest of us who appreciate it. I had a favorite oil tank once but it wasn’t nearly as nice as the dumpster. Outstanding.
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July 18, 2022 at 11:11 AM
Have I seen your favorite oil tank? Would love to. And then there’s your (favorite, I assume) cosmic cookie sheet. But maybe there are more than one of those. . . Thanks, Ken.
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July 18, 2022 at 11:21 AM
Firstly, anyone not familiar with your photography would be quite surprised after reading the title. Beautiful abstracts not at all candidates for the art dumpster. One of the very few reasons to enjoy our penchant for creating trash and the need for containers to remove it.
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July 19, 2022 at 3:02 PM
Yeah . . . I probably took a chance with that title. Thanks for getting past it, and thanks for writing, Steve. I just checked your blog. You have been posting, and I have not been notified. So I hit “Follow” again and was told I was already subscribed. Hm. Well, maybe now the notifying emails will resume.
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July 19, 2022 at 5:06 PM
That’s happened to me before with other blogs too, Linda. And sometimes, for whatever reason, WP notifications end up in my xFinity spam folder. I always check there now just in case.
I don’t think you took that big a chance. Those of use who know you knew what to expect and I hope others would have a sense of adventure. 🙂
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July 19, 2022 at 5:14 PM
Oh, and thanks for following again…or refreshing the follow.
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July 19, 2022 at 5:14 PM
Uh, I haven’t been checking my spam folder. So I did just now. Your blog email was not there. I see that I’m getting the usual number of Likes, so I guess the title worked out.
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July 19, 2022 at 7:55 PM
Thanks for continuing to post. You have made many very nice photographs while I haven’t been paying attention.
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July 19, 2022 at 7:57 PM
A wonderful art form. I just love these images.
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July 20, 2022 at 2:43 AM
Thank you, Jessica. I seem never to get tired of making them.
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July 20, 2022 at 4:52 PM
Another wonderful collection, Linda. I have left a tab open to the post so I could easily return to it. This evening I really spent time with each image, poring over each one, thoroughly enjoying the rich color, textures, random scratches and scribbles, and even a little gold dust…amused at one point that I had totally forgotten they were photographs of dumpsters.
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July 21, 2022 at 11:16 PM
Thank you for spending so much time with these images, Mic. I love that you forgot, for a while, that these were photographs of dumpsters.
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July 22, 2022 at 1:31 PM
They’re wonderful, Linda. Once again, I immediately think of huge color field paintings. Paintings where, as Mic said, you can get lost in the details but you’re still impacted by the overall tenor of the image. #2,3,4, and 7 are favorites. I like the bold, “Who cares!” scribble of the last photo, particularly because the slashing marks are made against that softly transitioning background. And you found it. That’s the real magic!
(Great title and perfect, succinct text, too).
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July 23, 2022 at 2:37 PM
Thank you, Lynn, especially for thinking that magic was involved. I still have the feeling that the dumpster photos are too easy to make for them to count as “wonderful”—even though I love finding and making them. I am relieved that you found the title and text sufficient. I wish I had more to say about them. There must be more, but it seems like I said it all in my “Unintended Consequences” article.
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July 24, 2022 at 1:54 PM
I can imagine they might be easy for you but I’ve tried a few times and my attempts were utterly sad. As for the text, two things: 1) sometimes less is more, and 2) there’s nothing wrong with repeating yourself a little bit – pulling a sentence or two from what you’ve written before might be appropriate. Cheers!
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July 24, 2022 at 5:17 PM
Ahh, you just didn’t find a good dumpster. All dumpsters are not equally photogenic. I’ll remember what you said about repeating myself. I think. 😉
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July 24, 2022 at 5:22 PM
I remember a Bryan Peterson book about composition where he shot some rusty metal and talked about there being a foreground, middle and background. I didn’t really see it but agree its all about composition. 👍
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July 25, 2022 at 4:45 PM
I don’t see a foreground, middle ground, and background in my dumpster photographs. I know that that is the ideal for landscape photographs, but I have a hard time achieving all three. Maybe that’s why I take more photos of dumpsters, where composition is the only thing I have to think about. Thanks for writing, Mike.
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July 25, 2022 at 8:11 PM
Love the textures and colors!!!
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November 19, 2022 at 5:11 PM
Thank you, Anonymously Hal. I see that you have started to follow me. Thank you. You’ll see more dumpster photos as time goes on.
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November 20, 2022 at 10:21 PM