Scene Shapers: Anti-‘PDC’ New York Photographer Mike de Leon
Public Dairy Consumptionthree words one doesn’t normally hear in a single phrase.
Yet in the latest issue of VICE, which also so happens to be their annual photo issue, the global youth counterculture magazine features a photo collection which happens to reference just that. The set of photos is titled “PDC” and features staged acts of dairy intake in various public environments like on the subway, out in a park or on the city streets.
For the person behind the lens, 25 year-old photographer Mike de Leon, it seems that public dairy consumption is an act that can make him quite uncomfortable. His uneasiness with PDC is perfectly depicted through his slightly awkward and slightly off-putting photos.
The set of images are a blend of being both bizarre and realitstic thanks to the over-exaggerated use of lactose props by regular, ordinary looking people. With the photos also being shot in everyday environments, these familiar backdrops create a perfect candid effect for his photos.
The one piece that really sticks out for me is the photo of a young, thin-looking man shoving his face into what looks like a 5-lbs. block of cheddar cheese. The juxtaposition of the human subject (who is tall but thin) and the cow-produced object (which is short but unusually large) really strikes a visual cord with the viewer.
Taking everyday items and people, whether it be the contents of your fridge or the people you pass by on the street, and throwing it in a snarky, unusual or lude context makes Mike de Leon’s images just oh-so-perfect for VICE‘s own “unique” photo standards.
Click through the photos in the slideshow above to view selects from Mike de Leon’s “PDC” photo collection.
