In early and mid-twentieth century American cities, visual culture announced the emergence of a new category of urban waste: litter. As anti-litter efforts used photography, cartoons, and other images to define litter, they also framed responsibility for its production and removal. This article focuses on the circulation of photographs in mid-twentieth century Philadelphia newspapers to illuminate the central role of visual culture in disciplining city dwellers about the proper relationship with litter and the larger landscape it marred. Early litter photography initially framed women, sanitation workers, and scavengers as primarily responsible for the production of litter. However, the disciplinary gaze sharpened in this set of images rippled outward as litter policing became increasingly formalized and punitive. As photographs defined and policed litter, they also illuminated a changing relationship between the municipal government and urban dwellers, in which residents were increasingly expected to maintain public space through unpaid physical labor and surveillance.

在20世纪初和20世纪中叶的美国城市中，视觉文化宣布了一种新的城市垃圾分类：垃圾。当反垃圾工作使用摄影，卡通和其他图像来定义垃圾时，他们还对垃圾的生产和清除承担了责任。本文着重于20世纪中叶的费城报纸上的照片发行，以阐明视觉文化在规范城市居民与垃圾和其造成的更大景观之间的适当关系方面的中心作用。早期的垃圾摄影最初将女性，环卫工人和拾荒者陷害为主要负责垃圾的生产。然而，随着垃圾管理的日益规范化和惩罚性提高，这组图像中的学科凝视更加强烈。