The Trash Can Portrait

The Social Environmental Portrait

By: Ray Chapman

            The first notion of a portrait usually pertains to a portrait of a person. Inanimate man-made objects are usually not perceived as portraits. Man-made objects are psychologically charged by their use/purpose, condition, and placement in an environment. They are left as complex fingerprints by the individuals who come into contact with them throughout their lives.

            A garbage can is a well know man-made object in most social environments. Its capacity for showing individual character is expansive because of its ability to retain large amounts of personal waste/trash from its owner. The garbage can starts to develop its own personal name and story much like important or sentimental objects do. The cycle of man-made objects have been in the hands or thoughts of countless individuals from the development, production, sale, and lastly use of it. The whole process can be assimilated to the cycle of human life. While a life is considered priceless, a garbage can is usually cheap and dispensable but its purpose can be considered priceless.

            Once a man-made object is made into this world, it ventures out and starts to become its own individual (however it is treated). This is its social environmental treatment which reflects it life like characteristics from its owners/users. The purpose of the environmental portrait of man-made objects is for the individual to take a new approach into perceiving the detail and insight of social environments and relating it to the people that inhabit the space.