Something Else - A Photo Book

October 06, 2020

Something Else - A Photo Book

In the third year of my studies we got a task to create a meaningful photography book. I've always been fascinated with garbage. The colors, the strange and different arrangements of objects that were once with a purpose in someone's life intrigued me. All around the city you could find surrealistic compositions of things that were thrown away. The surrealistic movement in photography in the 20's and 30's in Europe had a deep connection with those kind of objects - they called them Objet Trouvé or Found Objects. They are not considered as something you can make art with, but despite that they hold a certain aesthetic. That aesthetic I put into use in my book about overconsumption, combining photographic images of garbage and statistics about production and overproduction. This is the introduction of the book:

Consumption has become an universal language, which everyone understands. The main purpose of the modern man is to gain more and more wealth, so that he can spent more. Nowadays happiness is not measured by how wealthy you are, but how much wealthier you are from everyone around you. This constant tension gradually becomes a form of self-destruction. More and more people suffer from depression, feeling worthless and empty inside. And that emptiness cannot be filled. The idea of using, throwing out, buying and using again changes all human beings. We start looking at other people in a different way: “If you don’t give me satisfaction, then you’re also replaceable.” Even the most innocent (our children) gradually become materialistic.

Buy it today, throw it tomorrow, who cares?! Every year we buy more and more things, which we think need and create more garbage. That’s one of many problems that modern consumer society created. In third world countries labor gets to unthinkable levels – endless working shifts, child labor, and dangerous working conditions. And all that is so we could buy everything we want in the lowest price possible.

Soon our society will come to a point in which people will say: “I don’t want a luxurious car, I don’t want another Big Mac, I just want a simple, satisfying life, I want something else.”

And these are some pages from the book...(I'll upload a video of the whole thing soon. I promise.)