Artist and Educator Curran Broderick is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘Picking Up The Pieces’. To see Curran’s body of work, click on any photograph.

Circuits, Unique Vandyke Prints, 9x12x2 in, 2015

Fossils, Unique Vandyke Prints, 9x12x2 in, 2015

Wires, Unique Vandyke Print, 18x24x2 in, 2015

Fragments, Unique Vandyke Prints, 18x24x2 in, 2015

The work started by examining the objects humanity has thrown away. Like a curator, I select specific objects to collect and work with. Broken objects excite me because they evoke the most emotion. My goal is to use photographic process to transcend the identity of the found object. To me, it’s not just a plastic bag or the crinkled pages of a book, it’s an opportunity to reinvent the object’s existence.

These photographs are all unique and printed by hand. The prints are sculpted from gathered pieces of actual trash, coated with a silver/iron solution, exposed, and chemically processed. The finished pieces are then pinned into specimen boxes, which further shows the transformation of common trash to a rare, precious objects. Through their imperfections, they form a new beauty that questions: material impermanence, human absence, and emotional loss.