Jonathan Blaustein – The Value of a Dollar

jblau.com and finitefoto.com, a new media collective that investigates and promotes the intersection of photography and culture in the state of New Mexico, founded my the artist

“I’m interested in the way photography is used to deceive. Millions, if not billions of advertising dollars are spent annually photographing food and obfuscating reality. Fast food conglomerates are certainly the worst culprits, but everywhere we see glamorized versions of what we eat.

Food is clearly a potent symbol of wealth, power, health, and globalization for the 21st Century. Its value is determined by the price of oil, its transnational transport contributes to Global Warming, its ingredients entice America into obesity, and its production processes animals into floss and mush.

The photographs in this project attempt to strip back the artifice; to depict food items as they were sold, (minus packaging,) without styling, retouching, or artificial lighting. Each image represents a dollar’s worth of food purchased from various markets in New Mexico. The subjects exist as equivalent amounts of commodity, and nothing more. The resulting images allow for a meditation on the power and seductive nature of the photographic medium itself.”

one dollar’s worth of conventional grapefruit from supersave

one dollar’s worth of candy neckaces from china

one dollar’s worth of escargot from indonesia

one dollar’s worth of dried smelt

one dollar’s worth of potted meat food product

one dollar’s worth of fenugreek seeds from india

more photos on the artist’s website
found on collect.give, a place to collect contemporary photography and donate to worthy causes at the same time,
previously featured on Oitzarisme, too