Smokin' Backpacks

Artist’s Statement

 

 

Artwork Name: Smoking’ Backpacks

 

 

Smokin’ Backpacks is simple photographic collage made using twenty-one different photographs that depict a girl smoking two cigarettes with a yellow Kånken backpack which underlines the fact that sometimes behind the trends that society creates there are marvellous aspects which no one is actually aware of.

 

The subject of this photograph is not the girl because it is not what stands out in the context but the yellow backpack that immediately captures the viewers eye. When taking this picture I payed particular attention to two different details with which I tried to argument my thesis, the yellow backpack and the cigarettes on both sides. Both of these two elements symbolise an aspect of the society. The yellow Kånken backpack is produced by a Norwegian brand called Fjallraven, which is a brand that is really involved in global issues. As a matter of fact it uses a great part of the earnings it makes with the backpack to improve the living conditions of people of the third world countries and the conditions of the environment we live in. The brand basically helps improve the planet we live in but very few people who buy the backpack know it. This takes us back to the second symbol the cigarettes. The girl is is depicted with two cigarettes to show how strongly the trends of society can influence the masses. Smoking is seen as a cool thing by many people and that is why over time it became a trend and people do it without really knowing why. This is what happens with the backpacks, because the people become blindly clouded by the trends the society creates that they don’t really understand the meaning the things have, they only see the meaning the society gives them.

Done