Waste Land

Recently, in class we watched a documentary on the world's largest landfill, located in Rio, Brazil. The most memorable part of the film was when the workers at Jardim Gramacho helped blowup the photos he took. It shows how other people’s trash can be someone else’s treasure. I learned that you should find as much value as you can with the things you have because if you don't it will be left in a waste land never to be seen or used again. Let's say you go grocery shopping and you have your food items bagged in plastic bags. Once home you unload the food from the plastic bags and throw them away. Those bags could have been used as a trash bag or to carry books, but it wasn't. Instead it was thrown away and will end up in a landfill. Plastic bags take 500 years to decompose. Now image all 8 billion people on Earth throw away 1 plastic bag every day. There wouldn't be enough room to fit all of them. You should find as much value with the items you got before you throw it away. The way I think the people in the picture felt about the photo is proud. Not many people know that there are garbage pickers. The art bring awareness to them and appreciation to what the pickers do. They want to be seen and I believe that the subjects were very happy to finally be looked at. If Vik Muniz had made me the subject of his art, I would feel embarrassed but excited. I would be worried that the photo wouldn't give a true representation of me; however, I think it would be cool to see a photo of me be fun sized. There aren't many aspects of my life that would lead to the same type of art Vik Muniz created, but there are times. The times in my life when I feel accomplished, determined, lonely, etc. are the times when similar art can be created. These emotions go deep down to a place that is very delicate and so, when photographed, it reaches out to people.