Inspired

The subject of this image is a large Jack-O-Lantern in a grocery store made entirely out of boxes of soda (Sunkist, Coke, and Sprite). It is surrounded by different items to be sold in the store with a variety of marketing styles. I did very light editing on this photograph, only turning down some colors and adding a vignette to bring a dark focus to the pumpkin. I did very little editing because that is the style of the inspired photographer, Brian Ulrich. I chose that image out of about twenty I took during a walk in and out of Freeport stores because it was the one that most reminded me of the works of Brian Ulrich, with its far distance and clear subject of American consumer culture evidenced by the dozens of products featured in the image. The work is arranged with some formal balance, as the pumpkin is symmetrical and is surrounded by similar stacked-high boxes of food.

I had no set idea for what I wanted my image to feature, so I walked and drove around Freeport looking for things that screamed “consumer culture” at me. This image was actually the last one I took and I think it is the result of an evolution of style. I started in LL Bean, but it felt too warm in there to evoke Ulrich’s style so I changed my path by looking for stores that belonged to chains, had a very metallic feel to them, and were filled with people lacking emotion, frankly. Shaw’s ended up being a perfect place for that.

The photo is meant to remind people of the oddity of modern consumerism, with this elaborate spectacle going mostly unnoticed by customers and lacking any real purpose. It is just this piece of holiday themed art made up of a product that the store is aiming to push. Whether the Jack-O-Lantern actually does anything to help sell more Sprite, Coke, or Sunkist is unknown, but it probably was not worth the effort to the employee who spent their day putting it up, another cog in the machine of consumer culture. These displays in stores are always an odd blend of marketing and decoration for me, and while I appreciate them for their cleverness and artistic value, I do think them to be pretty useless in a place where people are just looking to get in and out with their food. On another note, I hold a particular contempt for this display because it took the place of the self-checkout aisles and now all the lines are clogged and it takes me forever to get in and out of that store with just two pints of ice cream. That aside, what bothers me stylistically about the photo is the balloons in the background. I think they detract from the boxy and strict feeling to the various subjects in the photo, and I think it would look better without them. I also wish I had gotten more of the emotionless men in line, as they would add a great deal of contrast to the photo if they were in a more focused area.