Cristiano Volk, Laissez-faire, 2022

Alienation is often found at the heart of Italian photographer Cristiano Volk’s work, wherein the human experience is always central. Described by Volk as “a single, neon-hued hallucination”, ‘Laissez-Faire’ is a meticulously curated meditation in which he uses his camera to capture the signs and symbols of capitalism and commodity culture. Individuals no longer experience reality directly, but instead live their entire lives behind screens. He collapses the usual parameters that shape our worldly existences – day and night, inside and outside, public and private, digital and real – into a feverishly imagined new universe, vaguely menacing and drenched in a cyberpunk sheen.