Radar Portfolio: Recycled Beauty

In their series Recycled Beauty, photographer Laurie Frankel and designer Diane Gatterdam bring out the beauty of discarded everyday objects.

There is a beauty in decay, but also a reminder that life is transient and that all things will wither and die. Combining nature with discarded everyday objects, photographer Laurie Frankel and designer Diane Gatterdam present new take on the vanitas motives of the renaissance. A memento mori of the modern time you could say. Withered leaves, mouldy lemons, and squashy peaches are juxtaposed with plastic wrapping, broken tins, and burnt out cigarettes. Beautifully arranged on black or white cloth, the photos bring a new and indefinite life to things we normally consider trash.

– The amalgamation of the two complete opposites allows us to look at things in a very different way. These photos highlight the extraordinary amount of disposable items in our lives we use for an instant but then live on for years, while nature renews itself in a seamless continual rhythm, the two artists say about the series.

– Pulling trash out of a dumpster and giving it new life that can live on indefinitely in a new form allows even trash to have a great beauty.

See a selection of Laurie Frankel’s and Diane Gatterdam’s series Recycled Beauty above.