What lies beyond the frame?

This photo draws its inspiration from the ubiquitous, staged “flat lay” photos often layered with filters and posted on Instagram, but additionally features the unstaged portions of reality. We deliberately arranged the items in the frame to highlight the artificiality of such photos, which is juxtaposed against the messily strewn objects outside the frame. The colours of the objects beyond the frame were adjusted for greater dullness to emphasise their unattractiveness as compared to the items inside.

Furthermore, we chose objects that seem to represent a certain luxurious and flamboyant lifestyle, such as a gold watch, a pair of sunglasses and lipstick. Against a plethora of everyday items like the hairdryer, dirty socks and worn out clothes, this illustrates an Instagram user’s autonomy in choosing precisely what to feature on the platform. It hints at the tendency of many to photograph and post only their desirable possessions, an issue that we were interested in exploring.