“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity” – Albert Einstein
It is with this quote that the proclaimed self-taught photographer Zeren Badar explores the relationship between how we as humans live, and how he envisages we will look in the future. Also known as The Penniless Photographer, NYC-based Badar aims to challenge his viewers’ preconceptions about the influence of technology on human beings, as he challenges why we eat, sleep, exercise and even find love via our smart phones, cameras and tablets. The Penniless Photographer does so by shocking his audience, evoking a range of emotions from surprise to discomfort through his unique method of layering appearance with technological components in a photographic representation of what he predicts the future to hold. Badar’s obsession with appearance and technology is expressed in this portrait series through the mixing of internal pieces of gadgets, from iPhones to cameras, and wires to hardware, with pictures found in magazines. Each individual piece forms a 3D collage, yet the final piece is always a photograph. It is through this controversial, quite literal method of piecing together humans and technology that Badar aims to evoke questions as to how technology is changing us, becoming a part of who we are and our everyday existence. But the real question is, to what extent? Can we control this? Or are we merely a production of this technical evolution?
Sexual orientation, race and age no longer matters. We are hybrids.
