Fine Artist
Jerry De La Cruz

The Finds Series

In May of 2001 while in Naples, Italy I was walking through the remains of an open air flea market that had closed down a couple of hours.  I looked down and noticed a small white place card with the number 12 hand written in black marker.   It caused me to wonder what kind of interesting items booth number 12 must have contained.  I also noticed that the white card rested on the gavel textured pavement next to an Iron manhole cover.  The composition was very appealing as were my thoughts about the history of the white card so I took a shot of it with my digital camera.  That shot started a six year (so far) photo essay on the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life that can be found under foot and what kind of photographic and archiological interest they may have for the perceptive viewer. 

Objects representing the life of the inhabitants survive the street sweepers at least long enough for me to discover them.  Over time I noticed that certain objects kept re-appearing.  Buttons, twisted wire, gold metal foil, all manner of plastic parts and rusted metal are only a few examples.  There are also the unusual and rare objects such as a paper yarmulke from the streets of Prague , Czechoslovakia or a section of a broken tape measure near Taksim Square in Istanbul , Turkey . 

When I find an object of interest I compose the shot, without disturbing the “Find”, to include surrounding objects, shadows and other shapes, the goal being to capture a shot that will stand on its own as an abstract composition.   I then place the object in a plastic zip bag and catalogue it with notes in a small notepad.

In brick-and-mortar exhibitions, the digital photographic image, accompanied by a satellite image map of the find location, accompanies display of the actual find.