Fifteen years ago I began photographing old, discarded newspapers that I would find in the grass, by roadsides, and in other odd locations. I called the series "Yesterday's News"... and then the internet really took hold and there were fewer and fewer of these to be found. That may be a good thing. I still keep my eyes open, though, and have expanded my definition of "news" to include old advertising flyers - in fact, anything in print that someone has thrown away.
I'm not even sure what these were. Possibly bundles of local newspapers, abandoned near the old boxspring I posted yesterday. I especially like the fragment "Turtle Dude", seen to the right of centre here. What does that even mean? Who are you, Turtle Dude, and are you still inside your shell? Ah, just another of life's little mysteries.
More to come...
Photographed at Old Wives Lake, near Mossbank, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2024 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: newspapers old faded folded torn ragged smeared ink discarded words mysterious trash decomposing outside exposed old farm yard prairie Old Wives Lake Mossbank Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page 2024
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Speaks for itself. Literally.
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Tags: newspaper discarded trash yesterday's news grass grassy field prairie Val Marie Saskatchewan Canada
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I rarely post two images in one day, but am making an exception here. I know photos of litter have limited appeal. I'm sort of compulsive with photography - I shoot just about everything. The current image set kind of fascinates while also repelling me. This particular shot has always intrigued me, so the back story may be worth telling...
It was a wet day in November and I was poking around the forest with a macro lens, looking for fungi to photograph. Something white caught my eye, resting atop an ancient red-cedar stump. I realized right away it wasn't a mushroom.
It was a book. It had been out there for a while. The pages lay open, and rain had thoroughly soaked them so that they were stuck together, returning to pulp. I worked in a pulp mill for two years in the 1970s, so I know what wood pulp looks like.
The ink was smeared, the words mostly illegible. An abstraction. I photographed it as such, with tripod and macro; fascinating. Now here's the kicker - and some of you may have guessed what the book was. It was a Bible. Why would someone do this? Was it an act of faith? An attempt to share The Word? Was it sacrilege? A political statement, however obscure? I have no idea.
Last year I posted a rodeo shot and received a scolding from someone who shouted at me from across the world that this was abuse, adding, "Shame! Shame on you!" As if I were responsible for the event I was photographing. So... if anyone feels angry that I would take this picture and share it, maybe stop and think for a moment. I am a reporter: I observe and report. This is a found object. Make of it what you will.
Photographed in Goldstream Provincial Park, Vancouver Island, BC (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2009 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: yesterday's news book words smeared rainsoaked abstract abstraction wet ink page found object discarded on display in the woods strange Goldstream Provincial Park Vancouver Island BC British Columbia Canada copyrighted James R. Page 2009 word salad
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Last entry for my Yesterday's News folder, if an expired sale can be news. I see ads for toilet paper... vitamins... plastic food storage bags... an advertising flyer that somehow found its way into the forest. Go figure.
Of course, there's content and there's art, and those may be two different directions in photography. I can look at junk and detach while I'm composing my photo - and the same visual principles apply as with any vison of natural beauty. The impact, of course, differs.
It really doesn't matter who was selling what. That we continue to dispose of our trash in beautiful natural places - literally trashing nature - is the greater concern. There are bits of charcoal here from a fire. Random fires are illegal in provincial parks in British Columbia. I would like to see park brochures with nothing but photos of the trash and related problems people create. Would it wake some of them up?
Probably not.
This is yet another reason why I moved far away from most of humanity: I can't beat them, and I'm certainly not going to join them.
Back to photos of the pristine prairie and its beautiful wild critters tomorrow. I promise.
Photographed in Goldstream Provincial Park, Vancouver Island, BC (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2009 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
Tags: flyer advertising ads newspaper discarded junk rainsoaked disintegrating ink paper almost abstract vertical found object yesterday's news sale litter manmade mess forest wild nature coast coastal Goldstream Provincial Park Vancouver Island BC British Columbia Canada copyrighted James R. Page 2009
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One of my ongoing projects is to photograph old newspapers, flyers, and other printed matter when I find it decomposing outside. It rains a lot on coastal British Columbia, so the deterioration is fast. In theory it could produce some interesting results, but I haven't looked long or hard enough yet to really know what the potential may be...
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Tags: flyer newspaper decomposing trash garbage campfire Muir Creek Vancouver Island BC British Columbia Canada
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