Paul D'Andrea Photography

Photo Rescue

In 2010, a gallery in downtown Indianapolis hosted Paul’s amazing series Noticing. To prepare for the show, Paul made more than 50 prints of likely candidates and then sifted through them carefully, choosing only a handful to frame for the show.

Three years later, on a de-cluttering binge, I came across the cheap prints in their Target envelope. What to do? I was recycling unnecessary papers and composting sensitive documents I should have shredded, but neither of those were options for photo prints.  I do what I can to keep our messes out of landfills. And anyway, they were so pretty!

Photo photo

This was my solution—or partial solution.  Thirty lucky prints got chosen and stuck to the bedroom wall. Yup, just Scotch-taped their butts right up there. I sorted them roughly into a spectrum, and eyeballed their level. It was all very low-tech, instant gratification. Yeah, it’s a little dorm room-y, but the wall was bare before.

Photo Photo 4

Have you done something interesting to keep items out of the trash? Can you share an interesting way you’ve used a photograph? I’d love to hear about it, especially since that Target envelope is still sitting around with at least 20 more prints inside.