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A look at the damning self-inflicted problem of South Jersey and the world. Litter is everywhere but can easily be a thing of the past and a start to a cleaner future.
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A Litter Way to Save the Planet
A look at the damning self -inflicted problem of South Jersey and the world.
Introduction:
Everyday driving from place to place we are all surrounded
by a disgusting awful sight that most do not even notice; the litter
and trash that is carelessly tossed onto the ground. It is the ugly
truth that the whole world faces every second. We are destroying
our own home, our planet. With every piece of trash that we toss
out of sight and out of mind and leave it on the ground to soak into
our very existence, we are killing the Earth and our own future. This
problem is not confined to the sides of our roads but to our whole
planet including our water systems. With every year this problem
gets worse as the younger generations care less than their parents
before them and they become more careless about the life of the
planet. There is no one that goes around every day to clean up the
trash that is left on the ground by those who do not care about the
life of their home. Most people will just ignore the litter that they
see, or join to the pile. While no one takes a stand to help to the
effort of cleaning up that litter and making the world a cleaner place
for the future generations. If every person is more careful about
tossing their trash on the ground we would have a much cleaner
planet. The next time that you are driving along the road take a
glance towards the side of the road and take in the amount of litter
that covers the ground, and remember part of that is because of
you. The following photographs are taken in the South Jersey area
around Sicklerville, Williamstown and Franklinville.
Litter is Your Crime
The images chosen are photographs of local spots where
many people drive by every day. They are the truth of the harm we
are causing our home. “Photographs bear witness to a human
choice being exercised in a given situation” (Berger 292). The
photographs here are doing just that. They are showing that people
are making their own decisions and dumping their trash on the
ground instead of in the designated areas. The first photograph that
is seen is of a place like many others where trash should be headed,
in the correct way into the landfills set up for the decomposition
process, while other material that is not decomposable will be
recycled to be used again, saving our planet from terrible waste
making its way into our land. There are also photographs of the tree
lining of an area that is completely littered with trash, there is more
area of trash then there is of healthy grass, or ground. I chose this
image for its shock affect; most people are blind to this atrocious
mess that takes place all over the world. When seeing this image
people wake up to the amount of litter that is left to decay into the
land. The photographs used are to show the decay and destruction
of our planet that has become a problem because of the ignorance
of all of us who do not take a stand and those of us who take part in
the act of destroying our planet. There are photographs of what our
pollution of our home is doing to ourselves and the actual life that
lives in sync with ours. Photographs of the ignorance of those who
decide to dump their trash and litter in places that are supposed to
be protected for the community’s wildlife. Also there is an image of
a sign that is dedicated to the improvement of the community with
litter surrounding it. This image holds a lot of irony to it; the fact
that there is an effort to make the community a better place, while
those who do not care and are not paying attention to that, are
dumping their trash all around that area. Even if these people who
dump their trash even see the sign calling for improvement then
they are dumping their trash with no care at all for the future. Signs
are also something that we all see everyday weather we choose to
read them or not we still have to abide by them. We have all seen
the signs that discourage everyone to not give in to that menacing
habit of dumping trash, tolling us with penalties for the act, and yet
there are still plenty of people who still choose to dump their trash.
As for why most people do not care about the future of their home,
the answer lies in the technology that is placed in their hand every
day. The population of today’s world is more concerned with the
new advances of what is going to be the “next big thing”. The
population believes that no matter what they do to the planet that
their future stands in the new technologies that will come about in
the years to come. For this reason I decided to use the exact
technology that they are so consumed with to capture the images
that are used to exploit their disastrous habits. The photographs
taken have been composed on an iPhone 5 and edited with the
simple editing tools that come standard with the camera on the
phone. I have determined this is the best way to capture the
damage done to the planet.
Litter in the Drain
“Photographs furnish evidence,” (Sontag 2).People need to
see the evidence of the crimes that are taking place against the
planet each day in every community. That is what it needed to make
the crime stop. They need to see that this is what they are doing to
their home, the future and the future of the planet is in their hands,
literally in the trash in their hands. They have the power to either
throw it away where it should be or just toss it on to the ground and
let it become a stab in the health of their planet. “The photograph is
a prop, a prompt, a pre text: it sets the scene for recollection,”
(Kuhn 396). The point of this photograph is to get people to think
about what they have don’t, and what the possibly will do later on.
It is a method to get them to think twice the next time they are not
caring about the land they live on.
This photograph shows many of the rules and elements of
composition. The first thing that is noticeable about this photograph
is that it is set in the rule of thirds, the main focus of the photograph
is the storm drain, which falls into the bottom right portion of the
picture where it sits on at least three of the grid lines. Taking part in
the rule of thirds adds more balance to the photograph. Also the
cropping done on this photograph was done to show that this is a
storm drain in a residential area, which is why there is still a view of
the sidewalk at the top of the picture followed by the grass then the
switch to the curb side with the drain. There is also a great use of
lines in this photograph. Lines can draw a person’s eye to the focus
of the picture. Lines also impact the feel of the photograph, for this
photograph the lines are horizontal and vertical, along with the
litter that is entwined in the lines of the drain cause the feeling of
disgust and regret. The lines in the photograph also form another
element of composition, patterns. Patterns create something
interesting to look at. The patterns of the drain cover and the
patterns on the sidewalk all draw the eyes to the main focus. This
photograph also shows depth. Depth creates a sense of a natural
looking image. It shows more than just the focus of the picture. And
finally the texture of the photograph, texture of a photograph adds
a feeling of life to the picture. In this photograph there are many
different textures, the sidewalk, the grass, the curb, and the metal
of the drain, the asphalt of the road and finally the texture of the
trash that is surrounding the drain.
“The photograph has an added realism if its own: it has an
inherent attraction not found in other forms of illustration,” (Hine
111). A photograph speaks a thousand words and a lot can be said
and changed with a thousand words. This photograph is a hopeful
way to help those who do not realize that they are causing harm to
rethink what is being done and help become those that help to
restore the land to what it once way and what it can be again if we
can all just work together for the same cause. This photograph
works well for the objective because it displays a place that can
easily be cleaned up as well as a place that should be cleaned up by
the members of the community that live by it. It is a storm drain in
front of someone’s home, that person should take it into their own
hands to make sure that trash is not making its way into our storm
drains and into our water. It is an example of a prime area where
people just do not care and are just tossing aside the future of the
planet and the future generations of children. The message of this
photograph can be transmitted successful to the receiver of the
image because it is seen as a residential area and it is showing that
litter can very easily get into our water system and cause damage to
everyone. The photograph shows those that it is very simply fixed
yet no one takes the time to do it. If people just took a few minutes
each day then they could be a great help to the future of the planet
and future generations of children.
Work Cited
Berger, J. (1974). Understanding a photograph. In A. Trachetenberg (Ed.), Classic Essays on Photography (pp. 291 – 294). Leete’s Island
Books: New Haven, CT. [pdf]
Hine, L.W. (1909). Social photography. In A. Trachetenberg (Ed.), Classic Essays on Photography (pp. 109 – 113). Leete’s Island Books:
New Haven, CT. [pdf]
Kuhn, A. (1991, 2003). Remembrance. In A. Wells (Ed.), The photography reader (pp. 395 – 401). New York, NY: Routledge. [PDF]
Sontag, S. (1973, October 18). Photography. The New York review of books. Retrieved from
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1973/oct/18/photography/?pagination=false&printpage=true [PDF]