Trash or treasure?

Has anyone ever said to you, "Honey, please take out the trash?" And so you did, but then what?

On average, American consumers "take out" about 250 million tons of trash each year. Some goes to landfills, some to incinerators and waste-burning manufacturing plants, and some to recycling centers, only to delay the inevitable when it will one day become trash again. Sure, I pick up a few choice treasures at our local recycling center occasionally, but I have to admit, I take a lot of it back a few weeks later after I have learned why someone "trashed" it the first time.

As I continue to focus on some of the environmental tragedies of inner-city culture, I was stunned to see a man with a leaf blower actually blowing the trash off the sidewalk in front of his store and out from underneath his overused BMW. Just like fall leaves, he was blowing discarded papers, cups, newspapers, and plastic bottles back into the street, or onto his neighbor's property. I guess it was his perspective on recycling.

We recycle and process trash as the environmentally prudent thing to do, while people in many third world nations recycle and process trash for survival. For some, municipal dumps are a source of food, building materials, cooking fuel, and even clothing. I just wonder how many treasures someone from the third world could find in these carefully packed bags of "All American Waste."

Up close and personal

Whether on Fifth Avenue in New York, in an urban ghetto, or in a third world village, people are people. Author and photographer, Steve Simon, in The Passionate Photographer, expressed the importance of developing intimacy with subjects in street photography. I don't mean physical intimacy, but personal intimacy where you are essentially given permission to move in close and communicate with them on a deeper level. Some say it's an art, others a skill, and some are more anatomically descriptive, but nevertheless, it is a skill set that requires nerves of steel, especially when we do not share a common language.

Take this pit bull for example. I was photographing in one of the most rundown neighborhoods in Bridgeport, CT. When I turned around, I was staring into the face of a pit bull and Hector, its owner. It was not a time to turn and run, but instead, make friends -- fast! I don't remember what I said, but as you can see, it worked. His personal space became my personal space, if only for a few moments, but then that's all I needed.

Just BOOM!

Last week I was photographing deep inside one of the buildings of the Remington Arms manufacturing complex that had been totally abandoned in 1988, when I found this window graffiti that really said it all. Before Remington moved from Bridgeport, CT, to Arkansas, they employed 17,000 workers at this 73-acre manufacturing complex of buildings.

Most of the windows have been  broken out and floors littered with broken quarter inch safety glass that crunches under your feet as you walk through. The fuse boxes are hanging open and gutted. Graffiti covers most of the interior walls as street gangs claimed their respective territories. There was even a fresh dead rooster outside an open door that had obviously not fared well in a cock fight inside the night before. A couple of the four story buildings have been leveled, but the three foot deep debris field of broken brick, glass, and steel remains. It's a classic picture of urban blight and abandonment.

Today was one of those days when, like the last of the Remington employees 25 years ago, everything seemed to go "BOOM." No need to go into details because we have all had them. You know, a sequence of events that seems to knock the wind out of you as soon as you try and pick yourself up from the previous event. We cry, "Woe is me, woe is me," and then we find someone who was hit harder.

Suddenly, the BOOM becomes a bang, and the sun comes out and shows us something new. Something we never thought of before. It puts new wind in our sails and fresh ideas in our minds. We leave the shattered rubble of the day behind and move in a new direction.

Walking down Main Street

It seems every small town has a "main street," and most Connecticut towns actually name it, "Main Street." Each one is a treasure house of idyllic structures with their unique architectural elements custom designed, sometimes hundreds of years ago.

Some "main streets" are a blast from the past reminding us of our childhood. Gone are the dime stores and soda fountains, but often you can see traces of bygone memories like the F.W. Woolworth name in the stained stone above the windows of some stores. And what about the chrome rimmed Formica tables, red naugahyde booth upholstery, and jukeboxes with all those "flipper cards."

Main Street, Woodbury, is a haven of well kept homes and churches, some as much as three hundred years old. While most have been turned into art galleries or antique shops, many are still private residences that have been in the family for generations. I challenge you to spend a couple of hours like we did, and walk your Main Street, with your camera of course, and watch the beauty take shape. It's there, in the details.

This image is one of six 16x20 black and white prints from our Main Street, Woodbury, Connecticut, collection that we hung at Ayla's Deli in Woodbury, yesterday. Ayla's is located in Barclay Square, 20 Sherman Hill Rd. Stop in, enjoy a sandwich, and give us a call - not necessarily in that order, though.

What is your New Year's resolution?

I'm not sure who started the New Year's resolution tradition, as they never seem to last very long. At the top of the list of favorites is spend more time with family and friends, followed by improved fitness, and losing a ton of weight, even though in past years we seem to weigh in at the same amount at the end as we did at the beginning, despite our well-intended efforts. Other people commit to learning a new word every day, quit drinking or smoking, pay off all debts, read a certain number of books, or read through the Bible in a year, take up a new hobby, drive within the speed limit, and on and on. You get the idea.

Now don't get me wrong, I like commitments and goals as much as anyone, but I know the importance of being realistic and honest with ourselves, too. So, if you make a resolution, make it meaningful, measurable, and memorable, not only for yourself, but others around you as well.

Happy New Year, and may it be your most memorable.

Merry Christmas!

One way to get attention in public is to say, "Merry Christmas," especially in response to someone who wishes you a politically correct, "Happy Holidays," for fear of offending someone, or not getting the sale. Perhaps it's even out of fear of being reprimanded, or even fired by their employer. Businesses, city halls and many public squares avoid controversy by not displaying anything in celebration of Christmas, or even Chanukah.

As we were looking for inspiration for our Christmas card this year, we photographed the nearly 300 year old restored Neapolitan Creche at the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut. It is believed to have been presented to Victor Amadeus II, King of Sardinia at his coronation in 1720.

When we looked closely at the 68 figures in the 16 foot wide creche, we noticed, like today, many were in awe that they were in the presence of God while others were too busy with their everyday activities to even notice. Some of the faces showed joy, others anger and even contempt because people were making such a big deal about a baby. I guess some things just never change, just times, places and cultures.

It's hard to ignore history and even harder to change it. So, in view of this historical event, we extend to you our warmest Christmas greetings as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago and is with us each day of our lives regardless of where, or who we are.

Tiffany & Co. to the rescue

For the first time in years, our Christmas shopping was done with a week to spare. Fortunately we did the bulk of it on the Internet. While I have the enviable reputation of repeatedly getting the parking place closest to the door of any mall the day before Christmas, it doesn't help fight the crowds inside stampeding for the last wrong sized ugly sweater or the last scented Christmas candle that smells more like a Bethlehem stable than a pine tree.

As I cruised the Internet this afternoon, I found most of the online stores where I shopped have switched from, "Order now and get delivery by Christmas," to "Order your gift card online and have it in time for Christmas." In other words, if you haven't bought it yet, there is no way you will have it by Christmas. Sorry guys.

Oh wait a minute, the cutoff for ordering online and delivery by Christmas from Tiffany & Co. is 3:00 p.m., December 23, and they don't even charge for shipping. So, gentlemen there is still time to avoid the traffic, shop at one of the most prestigious stores in the world, and have your gift delivered for free in time for Christmas. She'll say, "Oh honey you shouldn't have," while you'll be thinking, "You're right I shouldn't have, but at least it was free delivery."