As I reach the end of my senior thesis, I have noticed a lot of growth in my concept since the beginning. At first, I was a bit confused about what direction to take my project in. I knew that I wanted to create a photo book and I wanted to document trash around my apartment complex but I didn’t know how to transfer that all into a bigger concept. Towards the end of my work on my thesis I realized that I wanted to direct the focus onto the trash made by people living in the apartment, but I also wanted to focus on my own waste as I was also a member of the apartment community. From this idea, I decided to title my photobook Consumed. These images spanned everywhere from images inside of dumpsters to self-portraits with trash. Most of the images show a lot of detail of the waste. Apples with bite marks, cigarettes with burn marks, etc. because I really wanted these images to have that in-your-face quality to them. Certain images also include messaging and logos that create a deeper concept about the brands that people are consuming. Other images are made to look a part of their environment, such as the image which appears to have a red line dividing the middle of the photograph. The red line is in fact a classic chic-fil-a straw. There is a lot of hidden messaging in the photos and I hope that viewing these images help people to reflect more on their consumption, just as it has helped me reflecton my own throughout this process.
Alura Neumyer: Final Creative Project
