DDSB’s (Discarded Dog Sh*t Bags)

DDSBs came out of a long period of research into how dog walkers disposed of their pet's mess and concentrated on the discarded dog bags that are found in parks and open spaces in the UK. The question being: Why go to the trouble of bagging said mess to then throw into the nearest bush or river? Having picked up the mess does the individual feel they have fulfilled their obligation or simply a case of not wanting to carry the offending object for the rest of the walk? This project didn't attempt to answer these questions but simply presented the evidence. The work was produced as a typology of large-scale colour prints (after the Becher's 'Typologies' series of industrial images wherein the object is seen in terms of its appearance being a process of function) of found bags, photographed in the location they were encountered. Though the bags varied in colour they, in most cases, followed a typological structure in terms of being knotted and then disposed of. I photographed each bag to emphasise their similarities (as opposed to an empty plastic bag) and placed them in the same position in each image to further emphasise this. The presentation of this work followed this typological structure in that the bags were presented as a large grid of images that reflected on their form and function. This exhibition was shown as part of the Format 11 photography festival in Derby 2011. Further research is on-going within this project, with international DDSBs images being produced in Norway, Germany, Isle of Man and Australia. A book of this work has been published and was launched at the 2013 Recontres de Arles photography festival.