Out of the many photo opportunities Vancouver has to offer like gleaming skyscrapers, trees full to bursting with cherry blossoms or fiery sunsets, one photographer has turned his lens to the city’s dumpsters.
Grant Dyck runs the Instagram account @dumpsterphotographer, which is dedicated to capturing metal bins hidden in alleyways across the city. Having just recently moved to Vancouver from Calgary, Dyck says the idea came to him within the last few weeks when he tried to answer one very simple question.
"I thought, 'what's the dumbest thing I could do?' Dumpsters."
And with that, Dyck was off.
Now Dyck has over a month’s worth of dumpster photos ready to be uploaded to the account every day, a trend he will continue for an entire year.
“I'm gonna do 365 dumpster photos. That's the goal, if I can get one year of dumpster photos that's awesome. That's a life well-lived, maybe?" he said, laughing.
With only 11 posts made to the account so far, Dyck has already got followers from across the country. One follower goes by @dump_sterman and is a self-described dumpster superhero who makes sure Torontonians sort their garbage properly… lest they face his wrath.
Dyck has also been making local connections as he recently reached out to Revolution Resource Recovery, who he says told him he could paint one of their dumpsters for his account.
For a dumpster to be featured on the page, Dyck looks for a few key things like unique graffiti, texture, layers of paint, welding patterns, repairs or anything else that makes them stand out.
The photos all are taken on his iPhone 12 and are then converted into black and white where Dyck teases more texture or details out of the photos through editing.
"They're everywhere but people don't look at them as being interesting so I just thought what could I do to make something so common and vernacular more upscale."
As for the black and white theme of the account, Dyck says colour photos of the dumpsters will not be uploaded as he believes the two-tone option is more “arty.”
Dyck also says the account might be a play on the meme that described 2020 as an absolute dumpster fire of a year. Either way, the next time you come across a dumpster maybe it’s worth another look, or even a photo.
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