Monuments of the Plastic Age

The discarded plastic bag is a picture on our complicated relationship with plastic. Plastic is a finite, irreplaceable material that will virtually last for hundreds of years ‐ and it's damaging for the ecosystems it's allowed into. Yet, it's treated as our most discardable material, reflected in the kind of products it's produced from, as well as how we treat it.

In Monuments of the Plastic Age I've visited discarded plastic bags in the tall grass and bushes where they eventually end up. With a frame resembling the clamp used in early 19th century photography to hold the person's head still, I'm photographing them in the context where this plastic story becomes real. The frame is a photographic tool, but it's also a way of raising small monuments where these plastic bags keep living on.