Halloween candy still lifes: the hierarchy of the haul

The best part of trick-or-treating may have happened after getting home.

The entire haul would be emptied onto the floor and sorted almost instinctively: the favorites, the trades, the pieces worth saving, and the candy that would remain untouched until everything better was gone.

There was a small economy in those piles. Trades were negotiated. Certain pieces carried more value than others. Some were immediately claimed, others exchanged, and a few inspired disappointment the moment they appeared in the bag.

This series is a tribute to that full spectrum of Halloween candy.

Familiar favorites appear alongside the misfits and underdogs: glossy chocolate, Smarties, Dum Dums, Nerds, Starburst, Rolos, and, inevitably, raisins. Each is photographed with the same attention, regardless of where it might have ranked in the childhood hierarchy.

Seen individually, the candy also becomes a collection of small design objects. Wrappers, typography, color, texture, and shape are part of what makes each one instantly recognizable. But the larger idea is less about packaging than memory. These are objects whose relative value was established long before anyone thought about them as still-life subjects.

The favorites mattered partly because something else had to occupy the bottom of the bag.

Together, the images recreate the strange little social order of a Halloween haul: what was hoarded, what was traded, what was tolerated, and what somehow survived until January.

Every piece had a place in the hierarchy, and every piece belonged in the bag.