Retail Osteoclast

Osteoclast /os·teo·clast/ (os´te-o-klast″)
1. A large multinuclear cell associated with absorption and removal of bone.

It's no big secret that the mall can be a detriment to our identities both as individuals and as a society is destroying the world, but the modern retail environment is arguably the osteoclast of postmodern identity. "The Mall" uses propaganda and spectacle to break down our perception of identity, and then rebuilds that perception in the name of collective appeal. It targets the Achilles heal of our "self" that prevents us from establishing and maintaining personal identity without increasingly intense visual stimulation, and then, just as bone heals and grows, it injects itself into the very makeup of that manufactured identity.

Yesterday, I suddenly found myself obsessed with these environments. I've always wanted to shoot them in detail but was usually met by generous resistance from both corporate contacts (who we all know are terrified of D-SLRs) and diligent managers with nothing better to do. With a cellphone, no one even notices I'm shooting... I look like I'm on FB.

So, here is the start of this visual exploration. It's certainly not something that hasn't been done before (hello Brian Ulrich's Copia) but I wanted to see for myself, if you will...