Consumerism and imperialism have long been explored and visualised in photography. Indeed, images themselves are a commodity that perpetuate the cycle. But with the dawn of the internet and new technologies, the heightened awareness of the climate crisis, intersectional thought and need for decolonisation, photography’s relationship to capitalism is being reexamined.
“People always try to find the most incredible thing, it’s always about perfection and the extraordinary,” says Max Siedentopf, co-founder of Ordinary magazine, “but there are so many things around us that we’re not aware of, all these mundane boring objects that we don’t even notice.” This is the philosophy behind Ordinary, brainchild of Siedentopf and designer Yuki Kappes, which has returned to print after a year’s hiatus. Each issue, the magazine asks 20 photographers to reimagine an ordinary object – be it a kitchen sponge, plastic cutlery or a single white sock – as something extraordinary. The object featured in each issue is gifted to the reader as an “extra” in a plastic bag on the front cover. This time though, the bag arrived empty.
With the IET International Engineering Photography Competition currently open for applications we caught up with photographer Daniel Stier to discuss the relationship between art and science.
In one of the essays for Daniel Stier’s book, Ways of Knowing, Pedro Ferreira, professor…
