Turning rubbish into art – for Simon Puschmann, this isn’t simply an artistic exercise. His Wastelands series portrays the shocking amount of waste we produce worldwide. He transforms everyday rubbish into appealing compositions, creating an unconventional portrait of each place where the trash is found. London’s Brick Lane, Venice Beach, the St Pauli district of Hamburg: Puschmann uses each location to reveal unique habits and patterns of consumption. Using the ‘knolling’ technique, he arranges the objects at 90-degree angles and photographs them from above. The constant setting-up process involved – camera lens, distance, background and collecting technique are the same for every location – allows fascinating comparability. The photo series encourages us to reflect on our own consumer behaviour.
Simon Puschmann, born in Essen, Germany, is a versatile photographer, director and artist. His career has taken him across the globe, from Germany to the USA and New Zealand. After graduating from the prestigious Lette Verein Berlin photography school, he worked as an assistant for various advertising photographers before setting up his own studio. Simon Puschmann’s ability to stimulate thought with his art is what makes him an influential figure in the contemporary art world.