Decay of the Modern Consumer By Simon Radtke

The Vanitas art style is symbolic by showing numerous things – the shortness of life, the vanity of pleasure, and the inevitability of death, which are captured by the recurring presence of the skull amongst other mundane items. In this photography series, Simon Radtke showcases five themes which he believes have generated a lot of attention in recent years. These themes included; alcohol, Black Friday, fast food, caffeine, and technology.

Inspired through his interest in food photography, Radtke researched how food habits have changed over the last few years. The noticeable development, not only in himself but also in the environment he was surrounded by, push him towards the other four categories. Radtke explains the intention behind his project is to draw attention to the products that we subconsciously consume on a daily basis. Personally, I know that I consume all five of these categories on at least a weekly basis – with caffeine and technology being consumed on a daily basis.

Unlike the original vanitas art styles, this series shows very minimalistic designs whilst still being extremely captivating. I found that Radtke’s use of a dark black background with little lighting drew me in to look at the finder details, searching for anything lurking in the darkness or simply figuring out what items are on display.

The themes I particularly enjoyed in this series were Black Friday and technology, at first I believed the Black Friday theme to simply be online shopping which linked it together with technology – being the only two images linked. They are also the only two images where the skull is directly interacting with the items in shot, Black Friday being suffocated by plastic and technology being wrapped up in wires. But why were these the only ones? Are these the biggest threat to our everyday life?

Check out Radtke’s images here and interpret them for yourself.

Written by Ali Kan

Edited and Published by Chloe Webb

BA(Hons) Media Production

Solent Media