“ads for nothing, postcards of nowhere” is series of constructed still lives and portraits showing the complicated interconnection between cultural ideas and physical objects. Photographing specific representational items creates a tension between their existence in the world and what they represent. I take photographs in domestic settings and with unusual gestures. The odd posing of people and objects is in reference to surrealist subject and composition. Borrowing visual cues from commercial photography, an artificial light bathes the objects from outside the frame and creates a crisp and vivid picture. Using digital color photography and medium sized framed prints adds yet another layer to the physicality of the subjects. The work came from my interest in our interactions with objects and the personal meanings we give them. The photographs shown dive further in my understanding of cultural symbols and their layers of substance. The work is meant to connect with viewers memory and personal dictionaries through a visual language that is familiar to them but remains indecipherable.