Still Life: 21

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Marlboro Lights #23 will be among work in Still Life: 21 at the Ida Culver House Broadview from March 13 to July 6. The show, curated by June Sekiguchi,  features still lifes that depict the new detritus of life revealing the context of objects in our culture.  

Marlboro Lights #23 is part of my ongoing project exploring Seattle’s International District. Cigarette packs are identical when manufactured. A smoker buys and carries a pack in his pocket, takes out a cigarette, lays the pack on a table. The pack is empty and the smoker throws it away on the street. Rain, cars, people complete its transformation from the uniform to the individual. My photographs record the result.

Warnings about the dangers of smoking and the penalties for littering are everywhere in this country. When we see cigarette packs on the street, we may find them ugly, dirty garbage. We want to look away, condemn the litterer. Yet, a closer look might reveal the elegance of each discarded pack