Segal’s approaches his work from the sensibility of a sociologist, with this he explores different cultures – identities, behaviour, oles, beliefs and values. He utilises complete contrast and juxtaposition to gain the viewer’s full attention as well as provoke reflection.
One of his most notorious series is “7 Days of Garbage” where he pictures portraits of people surrounded by garbage to bring awareness to the sheer amount of waste we produce and how it can affect the world.
Segal stated that he always wondered what would happen after we run out of places to simply dumb trash. The average American generates around 29 pounds a week meaning as a nation that is roughly 9 billion pounds a week, he also stated that he was not only concerned about the amount of waste we produce, but how oblivious we are to the matter at hand.
For the shoot, Segal asked friends, family and even neighbours to participate. They were given instructions to save their waste and recyclables for a whole week and then he’d have them lie down in said waste and photograph them.
Segal revealed that he included his family as a way to teach his 8-year-old son and make him understand that they aren’t excluded from the situation – they, too contribute to the issue at hand. Which, I feel is an important lesson to teach children as so many people seem clueless to how much damage it does to the Earth – people ignore it as it’s not affecting the area around them currently.
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