Beautiful Garbage Art

New York-based designer Diane Gatterdam, in collaboration with San Francisco-based photographer Laurie Frankel, transformed piles of modern day garbage into art. Artfully named the 'Recycled Beauty Collection,' Gatterdam replaces the typically un-rotten fruit bowl with a random mounds of decaying and dirty everyday objects.

Randomly positioning items found on the streets, Gatterdam and Frankel photograph the piles in the style of traditional still-life paintings. The pair hopes to travel around to different cities and photograph local litter. From used orange juice containers to the decomposing fruit cores, the photo series has an organic feel that speaks to the growing amounts of goods a society wastes on a daily basis to reveal the hidden unseemliness of modern life. By placing value on the things we usually dispose of without a single thought, Gatterdam's modern still life paintings suggests not only a reconsideration of our consumption habits, but prompts us to see the stunning beauty in an ordinary discarded pizza box.