Department of Government Waste is a photo series shedding light on the often-overlooked human cost of federal budget cuts, layoffs, and program eliminations. The project features portraits and personal stories of former federal employees and contractors whose livelihoods have been dismissed as “waste” in the name of politics. As federal programs shrink and agencies face sweeping cuts, thousands of workers and contractors are left navigating uncertainty the news rarely pauses to acknowledge.
By pairing portraits with lived stories, the project aims to replace impersonal narratives with a conversation that centers the people behind the policies. This project centers their experiences through formal portraits made against a weathered American flag, symbolizing the erosion of so many American institutions.
The quotes are pulled from longer conversations about job loss, stalled careers, and the ripple effects felt at home. These stories reveal how policy decisions, often framed as efficiency or necessity in the news, reduce real lives to line items.
Department of Government Waste is an ongoing body of work that will continue to collect portraits and stories from those that have been affected by budget cuts, documenting not just who was cut, but what was lost.