Trash Can Tourists

I was photographing in Goblin Valley, Utah. There were people wandering around doing normal tourist stuff, enjoying the sights, taking photos, and selfies at the overlooks. As I was watching them, I noticed garbage cans placed around the overlook. They looked as if they were standing around waiting and posing for their photo to be taken. I thought it was funny how they seemed to take on a life of their own, so I started to photograph them. This first set of pictures led me to start to look for trash cans to photograph. I thought of them as garbage can tourists, out on vacation. Whenever I found a trash can that was in an interesting location, I would photograph them. As the project evolved, I began to find other garbage cans, and instead of just photographing garbage can tourists, I started to photograph everyday garbage cans, the working-class garbage cans, the garbage can alone by the road, groups together. It interested me that I was assigning an emotional value to garbage cans based on their location, condition, and state of being. The personalities of the garbage cans mirror and explore the personalities and attitudes of their human masters.