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]