About Les Plu’belles

A bin-spotter’s travelogue

Les Plu’belles

About the project

The idea of taking a series of photos of dustbins on my ten month trip around the Baltic states, Russia and Asia first saw the light of day in Tallinn, in August 2012. I needed a theme for my photos and there it was: the Robot Bin, in the Old Town of Tallinn, who triggered the idea for this series. That was it: bins it was to be!

A keen recycler and interested in sustainability for a long time, the dustbin linked this interest with a liking for the quirky and my long-standing passion for photography. The dustbin represented the perfect subject: accessible, universal, varied, low-key and ‘low-risk’: nobody would stop me from taking pictures of them or put me in jail for doing so.

Here are a collection of pictures of the dustbins spread across my trip. Each bin has its personality, and each one is a little part of my journey.

Past expo showings:

2014:

• 1-2 April, at the Salon Produrable, in the VIP lounge area, Palais des Congrès, Porte Maillot. The salon is one of France’s main annual sustainable development salons for sustainability professionals
• 8 April-12 May, at the Photo Up gallery, Paris 17ème
• 22 November through to 2015 at the offices of the French Government publishing arm DILA (equivalent of UK TSO/ex HMSO) as part of EUROPEAN REDUCTION OF WASTE WEEK, in their Paris and Metz offices, to help create staff awareness around DILA’s waste issues and how to reduce waste.

2015

• 24-25 January, rue Bichat, 75010, Paris, in a beautiful duplex flat, in the form of a private view – the exhibition is for hire, and this was a first experiment with a showing in someone’s home!
• 18 May-12 June, avenue de France, Paris 75013, at the reception of the new Tolbiac Ville de Paris offices, at the Direction de la Propreté et de l’Eau, covering Sustainable Development Week.

2017

• Tuesday co-work exhibition space, Berlin Schöneberg, April/May
• bbh Law and Energy consultancy, Berlin Mitte, June-December

2019

• Group show ‘Make Art not Waste’ at Impact Hub Berlin, Kreuzberg 28 March-16 April.

Your ideas of ‘eco’ spaces and organisations linked to waste management/industrial design, in Germany or elsewhere, who would be keen to show it are welcome.