Jason Fulford Atlanta, Georgia, b. 1973

Many of Jason Fulford’s photographs come from his travels, which he usually takes on a motorcycle for the more intimate, physical experience of being closer to one’s surroundings than in a car. His photographs have been described as having an American sensibility, a “mute humor and inexplicable sadness.” This image of a beat-up washing machine whose door and lid have been duct-taped to stay closed is humorous in the futility of the duct-tape. Clearly, the tape was not needed given the state of the washer now, nor did it help keep the lid on. Scattered throughout this valley in Kentucky appears to be other appliances or machines that have been shot at or mangled in some way. Fulford’s portrait of this machine in disrepair, intentionally neglected, is an interesting break in the chain of capitalist consumption—what happens to things when they are no longer needed? What sorts of experiments or recreation takes place in remote parts of the country?