Take Alter is a personal archive of 100+ images, taken over a period of seven years in the lobby of an apartment building in New York City.

An architectural altar turned informal free pile; a defacto drop zone where neighbors part with unwanted items and pick up others’ past possessions.

Mostly it’s empty. Often it’s littered with junk.

But sometimes, it’s a site of communal care, where someone’s garbage becomes another’s lucky find.

Neighbors trade relics of abandoned hobbies, excess essentials expiring, the casualties of changing tastes, the things we tend to outgrow

— a rolling, intimate, and anonymous study of those we share space with.

Written with Mascot Studio for an exhibition in 2024 at Bibeau Krueger