Recently, I was allowed to shoot at Cambridge Iron & Metal Inc. which is the oldest continually operating scrap and recycling industry in the Baltimore-Washington area.

“Cambridge Iron & Metal Inc. is owned and operated by the Shapiro Family – Sanford “Sandy” Shapiro, Neal Shapiro and Leroy Shapiro. It was founded in 1909 by Isaac Shapiro, and has remained family owned and operated for over 100 years.” The company was named for Cambridge Street where Isaac owned a stable that kept the horses that pulled their first loads of scrap.

There is other history here. The yard sits on part of what used to be the Crown Cork and Seal Co. It manufactured the first disposable bottle caps which were invented by its founder, William Painter. The cement silos stored the cork dust.

I'm in love with the textures of used materials and the marks of oxidation. I’m curious about what the marks reveal of their history. Each of these materials (metals) begs the question--what was its function? This is reusable material and I wonder about its future "life." Like a Quay Brothers' film, I expect objects to shuffle about with intentions and desires. For now, it lies together jumbled and expectant. The Shapiro family was gracious enough to grant me access to document these microscapes. These studies feel like conversations. I fancy that these patterns and accidental “hieroglyphics” divulge a found language that communicates emotional states.