SPENT

Spent is a photo series that calls our relationship to material possessions into question. I am fascinated by the relationship between pop culture, social media, and the increasingly materialistic values bestowed on today’s youth. Various elements of pop culture, especially music, have conditioned us to equate success to material wealth. Meanwhile, social media has evolved into a space to overshare, boast, and compare. We have nurtured a consumerist culture wherein commodification and excess are commonplace, outward appearance is prioritized, and human identity is intertwined with the things we buy. I chose to work digitally to take advantage of the flexibility of digital images in order to create a series of visually striking stills that deal with commodification, excess, and materialism. In dealing with these themes, I sought to counter the relationship between material and human set forth by commercial photography and to force the beholder to consider their own relationship to their possessions.