Valentin Rechitean
I'm a professional photographer based in Dublin, Ireland. Photography is my true love and passion. I strive to create the best photos possible, whether I'm documenting my personal life or working for my clients. I try to use my photos to tell stories and I am mainly influenced by the world around me, specifically nature, technology and architecture.
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Arcades
The idea for this project was conceived during the coronavirus lockdown of March 2020 in Ireland. This series of photographs shows the effects of the lockdown on shopping centres, which in turn affects the economy on a local and global scale. The images were taken at Blanchardstown shopping centre which was within my 2km radius of permitted travel.
In the images we can see how all the retail stores have been closed down as they are not deemed essential. The closing of these stores has caused many people to lose their jobs and has halted the local economy, as money is no longer being spent. Shopping centres, since their invention in 1822, were designed in such ways to get people to spend money. Money makes the world go around and shopping centres represent the “dream world” of capitalism, to use Walter Benjamin’s words (Arcades Project Benjamin 1982/1999).
Products
For this project, I tried to highlight the issues of consumerism in our society. The objects photographed represent just a few of the millions of products being made and sold worldwide. Products which are made from raw earth materials that are becoming harder to source. These ‘conflict materials’ vary from plastic, to glass, to rare earth metals. I call them ‘conflict materials’ as they are sourced mostly in Africa where the people are exploited and paid very little to produce them.
Companies like Apple and Samsung buy these materials for little to nothing and turn them into phones and other electronics that are sold worldwide. With this project, I hope to get the consumer to take a moment and think before they buy such products. By subjecting each object to the camera, we can get a closer look at the materials that make up these products and the companies behind them.