In a world increasingly saturated with advertising, branding, and product placement, consumption has become a necessary part of modern life. The language of consumer culture permeates the boundaries between public and private spaces – from billboards on city streets to branded products in the home – and influences how we understand the world and form our identities.

This presentation features a selection of photographs from the Henry’s permanent collection by artists who contend with the visual language of commodity culture. The works explore the significance of branded products, examining how their ubiquity shapes perception, influences identity, and reflects broader cultural values. Artists like Stephanie Syjuco, Tariq Alvi, and William Eggleston consider the complex position of the commodity object as both a product of extractive capitalist systems as well as a container for personal and collective meaning. These photographs question how value is constructed, mediated, and communicated visually, as well as reveal how everyday acts of consumption contribute to the construction of culture.

This focused exhibition is part of an ongoing series on the Mezzanine that features work from the Henry’s extensive photography collection. The collection includes over 4,000 historical and contemporary works that span the history of photography. Learn more about the Henry collections through our online collections search tool.