Mr M Brown wakes up before his alarm every day, in anticipation of the day that it won’t go off... It always goes off. As an employee at NUMBERS, Employee #001509, Mr M Brown works in the cataloguing section, simply tasked with rewriting any numbers found from the “old world” (our present day). Every day is the same, a monotonous cycle of repetition, and this is where Mr M Brown’s story begins.
Mr M Brown is a fictional narrative photo-based project. The story follows the titular character as they set off on a journey of discovery and identity. As the narrative unfolds, we see a shift from a passive character to one actively working towards change; the project revolves around reflecting on that character shift, as well as the question, “As power and wealth grows past the point of accountability, is hope for eventual accountability enough or must we break our own comfort to ensure change?”
The goal of this project is to highlight the issues of capitalism and colonialism through a fictitious and easy-to-consume lens. It takes up the very real-world issues of racism, the exploitation of workers, loss of land, and loss of identity, reflecting on them through the characters and their world. Ultimately, the work acts as a challenge for the reader to reflect on their own comfort and the reality that no change can come without the loss of some sort of normality.
Attendance Verification At Numbers
Attendance Verification At Numbers is a narrative project that follows Employee #001509 (Mr. M Brown), capturing some of the daily attendance verifications that take place, leading up to the characters eventual disappearance. The project showcases the monotony and isolation of the work being done at Numbers, and aims to set the groundwork for this world, and the character. The project captures another world in which everything is owned by companies, with employees having to work everyday of the 35 day long months. Employee #001509 works in cataloging and reproduction, being tasked with looking over all sorts of items, and having to write down the numbers present, not even knowing the purpose of his work. This project represents the push by people in power to keep people working longer and harder without anything in return, while those in positions of power profit, and remain unreachable. This as well as the feeling of monotony and isolation is recreated through the similar shots creating that sense of sameness and questioning whether it is the same day and photo, or a different one.
