Discarded Dolls American Southwest Black And White | Limited Edition of 10

Weathered Dolls Abandoned Among Sand And Fallen Timber

I was walking through the American Southwest doing what I usually do there—looking at the landscape, watching the ground, and paying attention to things that might otherwise be passed without a second glance. Then I came across this strange pile of discarded dolls lying in the sand beneath pieces of weathered timber. I stopped immediately.

There are three dolls in the photograph, but the largest one commands the frame. Its oversized head, blank eyes, outstretched arm, torn body, and dirty plastic limbs give it an unsettling presence. Beside it lies another damaged doll with a cracked, deteriorated face, while a much smaller figure rests farther to the left. The progression in size creates an odd visual rhythm, almost as though I had stumbled upon three stages of the same forgotten story. That uncomfortable quality is exactly what draws me toward this photograph and toward certain pieces of doll wall art photography that move beyond nostalgia into something more ambiguous.

I made the photograph from directly above, allowing the dolls, sand, broken wood, fabric, dirt, and cracked surfaces to become part of one graphic composition. The fallen timber cuts strongly across the upper portion of the frame, while the dolls form a looser diagonal beneath it. In black and white, the scene becomes even more stripped down. Color no longer explains anything. What remains is texture, deterioration, shape, and the almost human quality of faces that were never alive.

What stayed with me was the contradiction. These were children's toys. At one time someone almost certainly held them, played with them, carried them around, perhaps even slept beside them. Now they were lying outside, weathered and forgotten. I did not need to rearrange them or invent a story around the scene. The way I found them already contained enough mystery.

This photograph will not appeal to someone looking for conventional decorative imagery, and I would not want it to. I see it working best for collectors drawn to unusual black-and-white photography, found objects, abandoned subjects, surreal imagery, and work with a darker edge.

I offer this photograph as a limited edition of only 10 prints. Each print is personally signed by me and includes a certificate of authenticity. I print using archival pigment inks on premium archival paper so the fine surface detail in the dolls, sand, damaged fabric, and weathered wood remains an important part of the finished print.

For me, the power of this image comes from discovering something ordinary that had become genuinely strange, which is also why it belongs naturally with my abandoned and forgotten places wall art.

© Dan Kosmayer, 2010