Price tags go high-tech

Scanarama
London, ON
December 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram

This photo is the exact opposite of fine art.

If we're being blunt, it's a crappy smartphone snapshot of a crappy scene in a crappy grocery store where the employees have apparently forgotten to smile. Not gonna lie: I hate shopping here.

Yet here I am sharing this pic as if it's somehow worthy. Strangely, it is. Allow me to explain.

See, photography is many things, often at the same time. It could be fine art. Or it could be something less esoteric, like a simple view of the everyday.

And that's what this one is, a below-the-personal-radar snippet of everyday life that caught my eye. I shot it because this is no ordinary store shelf label.

Look closely. It wasn't printed. It isn't a sticker.

Rather, it's an electronic RFID (radio frequency identification) device with a low-res e-ink screen that draws power only when it changes state. Employees can easily change the display wirelessly and/or remotely, depending on the specific devices being used.

It's pretty awesome, an example of in-store retail trying to up its game a little.

I hadn't been to this store in a while, and when I first returned I noticed they had installed these funky new devices. So of course I had to remember that aha moment.

So, no, not even remotely fine art. But important all the same. Because it catalogs a moment in time, where the ordinary shifted a little, where we transitioned from something old to something a little newer, where the visuals that surround us got just a little more modern.

Normally we miss this stuff. Thankfully there's mundane photography to ensure we remember moments and places and visuals like these.

In other words, simple, everyday storytelling. And the world needs more of it.

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