Hunter Gatherer: Salvaged Stories of American Culture

American photographer David Ricci spent seven years traveling across the US making photographs at antique malls and fairs, curio shops, thrift stores, and other sites where consumer goods from the past are offered for resale. The images in Hunter Gatherer expose the hidden underbelly of American resale marketplaces and cast a light on the country’s historical biases and stereotypes, weaving together a tapestry of racism, objectification, beauty standards, Christianity, and consumerism. Ricci photographed these objects, displays, and scenes as he found them. Some are humorous—a Catholic nun figurine praying over a Batman Pez dispenser—but the juxtapositions of blatantly racist objects including lawn jockeys, Black mammy figurines, and tomahawk-wielding Native Americans with anodyne items like lamps and bicycles call attention to the darker aspects of present-day America as well as its history. Though no people appear in the images, depictions of human figures suggest thoughts, dialogues, and narratives that transform lifeless scenes into animated tableaux. The images in Hunter Gatherer provide a critical lens for examining the underlying values and biases that continue to shape contemporary American society.