VW Bus – © John Neel

Oliver – © John Neel

Windshield – © John Neel

Camero – © John Neel

Milk Truck – © John Neel

The junkyard is a graveyard for technology.

Fire Truck – © John Neel

It is a burial ground for the technology that once built our infrastructure, harvested our food, and transported us around the globe. They contain the relics of industry and  technological madness of the past century.

Besides the broken remains of oxidized metals and rotting rubber, these places are full of toxic chemicals such as Freon, mercury, antifreeze, battery acid, le transmission fluids, diesel, and God knows what else. Many junkyards have been used illegally as disposal sites for other types of chemicals including dioxins and pesticides. Scrap tires are breeding grounds for mosquitos.

Most of these places are located in rural areas where these chemicals seep into the soil, streams and rivers. This in turn kills fish and wildlife as it contaminates our water supply.

These are more than graveyards for technology. Junkyards are one of those hazardous reminders of our dependence on power, over consumption, big oil and greed. Simultaneously, they symbolize our advances and our failure to advance.

The junkyard can also be a metaphor for the cycle of life and death.

To a certain degree, they show us where we have been, our struggle for permanence and our fate.

The junkyard landscape is one more warning that man was here.

Please have a look at some of my other posts here.

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