"7 Days of Garbage" A Shocking Series By Gregg Segal

It is no surprise, we have a trash problem in America. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that the average American produces more than 4 lbs of trash per day, which has doubled since the 1960's. Gregg Segal decided to tackle this problem, by photographing a series of people lying in their own trash in efforts to show the waste in our daily lives.

His ongoing series is named "7 Days of Garbage"; it shows his friends, neighbors, and strangers lying in about a weeks worth of trash. Segal had paid and volunteer subjects to be apart of this project. Each participant was instructed to bring a weeks worth of their garbage to their shoot. Segal believes some brought less and others brought more nasty things that made for stronger images. All of his subjects were photographed in Segal's back yard, where he used natural materials to create artificial landscapes. The environments he created included a forest floor, sandy beach, and a body of water. "I shot from above to make it very clinical, clean, and graphic. It's kind of a nest, a bed we're lying in with all the stuff forcing us to reconcile what we are producing, which hopefully causes some people to think a little bit more about what they're consuming." Segal stated.

His participants did have some hesitation about lying in their own garbage, "They thought it was kind of gross. I think there's something mildly humiliating about it, but in a constructive way. It's kind of a once in a lifetime experience for people to be photographed with all their stuff. I think it's seen as a kind of novelty for some people and the questions of grossness was mitigated by the novelty factor." Segal also posed for a photo with his wife and son. " I didn't want to act like I am separate. I wasn't crazy about the picture, but I do think it's important to show people. It's not like I'm pointing the finger at them. I'm pointing it at all of us."

Segal will continue to work on his series, and utilize more constructed natural settings to enforce the idea that garbage is everywhere and that no part of our environment is clean. "Obviously, the series is guiding people toward a confrontation with the excess that's part of their lives. I'm hoping they recognize a lot of the garbage they produce is unnecessary. It's not necessarily their fault. We're just cogs in a machine and you're not culpabale really but at the same time you are beacause you're not doing anything, you're not making any effort. There are some little steps you can take to lessen the amount of waste you produce."

To view more of Segal's work please visit his website, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. 

Via {Slate}