Lincoln Restaurant in downtown DC made quite the design statement upon their 2011 opening. The floor of the main dining room is covered entirely in pennies - totaling just under one million in quantity, ten thousand dollars in value. The idea came from the restaurant's founder & proprietor, Alan Popovsky, and was brought to life by DC artist Maggie O'Neill.
However, even with the luck of thousands of pennies, the flooring did not hold up well. After 5 years' worth of foot traffic, it began to come apart. Lincoln decided to remove the infamous floor entirely in the Summer of 2016.
I documented the removal process, and the various methods and tools used. It appeared to be a very arduous task, made even more complex by the goal to salvage as many pennies as possible. Most had been trodden upon too much, rendering them unusable as currency, while others remained shiny and intact.
One theme I had in mind while capturing these images was to present the enormous contrast between these shiny coins and the destroyed remnants of material - there seems to be something strikingly symbolic about it. While Lincoln Restaurant had no deeper meaning behind the penny removal, I think it presents an interesting opportunity for interpretation. That is one thing I find most fascinating about artwork, the way it resonates differently between individuals and evokes a wide array of interpretations. I welcome even the most radical of personal analyses for this photo series, even if they do not make cents.
