This project was the first of several that involved looking at the ground and raising up beautiful discarded things to the level of people’s eyes so that they could see them in new ways, maybe for the first time. Broken shells, dead fish, and rotting seaweed from the South Fork of Long Island were some of the things I photographed for this project. To shoot these objects, I spent hours at the beach gathering, intentionally selecting the imperfect pieces, which I found more attractive and which seemed to have more texture and history. I didn’t want to reproduce the image that we all have in our minds of, for example, the “perfect” scallop shell. I photographed the objects at home, with a white background, then increased the color saturation, and occasionally added a few light brush strokes and scratches. I then printed them on water color paper, which further accentuated the textures.