BOXTOP STORIES and TIN CAN TALES
By Paul VanDeCarr
BOXTOP STORIES AND TIN CAN TALES Four or five years ago, in the canned foods aisle at my local supermarket, I got an idea that made me laugh: Make a series of those Russian “nesting dolls” out of tin cans of different sizes, each with a label that had an animal, a person’s face or a place on it. I figured I would photograph the sets of cans and display the photos. Then I’d recycle the cans. I started buying lots of canned food at local supermarkets. My practice was to buy now and assemble later. In the months that followed, I expanded the project to include cereal boxes, then shoe boxes, then cookie tins (mostly from eBay). I widened my scope by going to specialty stores all over New York City, finding food containers from Africa, Russia, Mexico, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and beyond. I collected a whole bestiary of animals, real and imagined. I collected landscapes ranging from beaches to deserts to cities. And I found people, lots of people, mostly growing, making or serving food. Such are some of the images that we encounter in the daily rituals of eating and drinking. Eventually, I started to organize the containers, thinking up little stories about each set of two, three, four or more containers—voyages, wildlife, people feuding, falling in love, joining in revolutionary struggle. The results are on these pages. This project is dedicated to my dear friend Noah, who put up with the trashy towers of boxes and cans when we lived together, and who has encouraged me in this and all things. Thanks for looking, I hope you like them! Paul VanDeCarr New York 2023 The image of stars on the front cover is by Casey Horner on Unsplash.