DUMPSTERS, TRASH and RUBBLE - Elements of Abstraction
By Manuel J Branco
1 Oct 2008
Some of the best spreads are beyond the first 15 pages seen in the preview. I revised and updated it so many times it got tedious, so I decided to let it rip, but I'm pleased with the result. It's a nice little coffee table book (10" x 8") if you like hard abstraction.
Dumpsters, Trash and Rubble, is a photographic journey through the underbelly and ubiquitous trash heaps of our culture. Finding aesthetic pleasure in what we commonly see as unsightly. I'm committed to the concept that art surrounds us. The first 15 pages only scratch the surface of this engaging collection of form, texture and color. Each image is a study in the Elements of Abstraction.
Blurb does a nice job putting these publications together. I must say, it's a nice product, very professionally done. All the images are in high resolution. Leafing through it is quite enjoyable. It's sparse in text but rich in visual impact. I've been very selective including only those images I find most challenging or at least, pleasing to me. I've included here some images not seen in the blurb preview.
Someone once asked me: "Where do you find your images? Where do you go to take your photographs?" "Well", I said "anywhere and everywhere. Art is all around us. It's everywhere. It surrounds us. We walk by it every day. Sometime it can be found in even the most unlikely places, like Dumpsters, Trash and Rubble. The trick of course is recognizing it."
It gets complicated, but I always know what I'm looking for (or looking at). Many of my images can be referenced by my influences. That is, they oftentimes reflect my influences and my influences are many. Beauty is always evolving. It's not a static concept. I think great artists like Francis Bacon and Andres Serrano among so many others, do us immeasurable good by expanding our view on what beauty is. They interrogate it. They expand on what beauty can be by compelling us with a singular style and vision that oftentimes taps into the consciousness of a culture, and sometimes expose us to the underbelly of the world. You don't do that by standing still, by being satisfied or complacent with social convention of what's acceptable. Art is discovery born from the play of a singular narrative. This is my narrative. This is my play.
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