NO ES BASURA (This is not Trash) is a collaborative exhibition on display at the eARTHWe Gallery at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica through June 7th, 2014. The exhibition is the result of Environmentalist and Educator Peter Kreitler walking the same quarter mile of beach in Santa Monica for ninety days, collecting trash.  He collected flip flops, sandals, a camera body face, plastic shovels and buckets, cigarette butts, straws, rusted fishing lures, mylar and Latex balloons, styrofoam cups, plastic bottle rings, and an unopened message in a bottle, which inspired him to bring attention to the environmental issue of trash. All the items collected began as useful objects, but as a result of human behavior, negligence, or forgetfulness they ended up in the water or on the beach. He enlisted the help of photographer John Reiff Williams,  to “transform “trash” into art with an important message.”

John Reiff Williams‘ photographic career spans 40 years receiving a BA at SFSU, an MA at CSULA, and an MFA at USC. John had two apprenticeships with photographers Al Weber and Ruth Bernhard. For 26 year, John was self-employed as a full-time photographer.

John Williams states, “My pursuit has been to process through this body of entangled carnage with my eyes, heart and camera. It is my hope that together, we can reexamine this body of flotsam we were once all party to, and reconsider the entangled stories that began from somewhere unknown, ended up on my front door and now stare us down almost everywhere in our daily life.”