…it’s not as though people no longer look down. Indeed, when people walk now – if they walk at all – their heads are down, but their gazes end on their mobile device screens.

But what might they see if they were looking through their mobile device cameras lenses, to the surfaces below?

This exhibit’s photographs capture the images and patterns that only can be noticed when paying attention to each step taken while journeying: by looking down at the actual ground beneath our feet.

The surfaces on which we tread are, in essence, canvasses to which gravity has attracted all manner of fascinating artifacts. Yet, although these surfaces – concrete, asphalt, brick, grass, sand – often are “permanent,” the artifacts that fall thereon invariably are transient: blown away on the wind, retrieved by their owners, or removed by sanitation workers.

Further, the artifacts themselves often are not carelessly discarded “trash” or “garbage,” but items lost by their concerned owners – who might miss them – or common objects set free from their normal contexts.

The images comprising this exhibit were photographed as they were encountered – in situ – using either an iPhone or an iPad, and are arranged according to seven recurring themes.

Originally presented as small format prints, the exhibit has evolved to an all-digital format, with the images being viewed from above, on two computer screens mounted horizontally just above floor level: literally, looking down.

in lieu of showing the images here, pictures of several of the previous print format exhibits are shown next: