picking up

A Butcher's #7

Jan 14, 2025

Trash

Since arriving in New York I was immediately attracted to the trash - I loved the look of the ribbed cans, lids linked together with wire, dented, flattened - totally abused. The noise at collection was something else!

It wasn’t just the cans but the stuff people threw away - everything! We furnished two apartments with stuff from the street.

3 in a row

photographs of trash cans, plastic wrapped Christmas trees — paper, metal, plastic ©SteveButcher1982-2023

focus

St Mark’s 1982 - note airborne bag ©SteveButcher1982

detective instinct

1982 East Village trash cans, Keith Haring graffiti — Trash art ©SteveButcher1982

1982 Keith Haring graffiti — Running man ©SteveButcher

I took this photo in the East Village in 1982. Unnoticed at the time on the wall behind is a Keith Haring ‘running man’. The address in the photo is 210 E10th St. My thought is that he was coming from or going to the Fun Gallery, just down the street at 254 E10th St.

sometimes it’s hard to resist (but you just don’t have enough room)

Recently spotted - how could anyone just put this kitchen set out on the street? I hope someone picked it up for a new life

postcard world

and now a favorite card from Italy - a partially complete model plane, including its shadow, missing its cockpit & pilot, superimposed on her head. Nice