Empty is a personal project about consumerism as cultural ideology. The project discusses the values of a modern society by depicting empty billboards throughout the world.
People are often valued based on their consuming habits. The commonly endorsed view is the more the better, while sustainability and human rights in the production process are secondary values. Each person living in a modern society is exposed to thousands of advertisements each day, selling everything from products to ideologies without their out-sent messages ever being questioned. Advertisement controls our social media feeds, entertainment as cinema and sports events, and public space. While advertising is converting to digital platforms many of the old fashioned billboards are left empty. And when they are empty I’m the most attracted to them. As then I’m not fed an image of how I should look or think to be correctly functioning member of our society.
Janne Riikonen – finnish photographer based in Stockholm, Sweden. MA in Photojournalism from Mid Sweden University.
