David Emitt Adams’ creative take on the history of what is no longer of use is just wonderful:
Take a look at what he does with aging evidence of human existence—turned into art—by a venerable photographic process from the 1800s.
Emitt-Adams states:
I collect discarded cans from the desert floor, some more than four decades old, which have earned a deep reddish-brown, rusty coloration. This rich patina is the evidence of light and time, the two main components inherent in the very nature of photography. For this body of work, I manipulate these found objects through a labor-intensive 19th century photographic process known as wet-plate collodion. I create images on their surfaces that speak to human involvement with this landscape. The results are objects that have history as artifacts and hold images connected to their locations.
Take a longer look at his other fine work here.