In many ways, the functioning of an antique auction acts as a microcosm for the Marxist critique of the capitalist free market. With the auctioneer acting as the producer; determining value through the setting of reserve prices and inciting price hikes through their actions, the bidder acting as the consumer; determining their bids in relation to the auctioneer’s speech and in-contest with whatever price a fellow consumer believes the item to be worth.

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Using the Debordian notion of the confluence of commodity, images and representation,The Domination of Things uses photography to explore the idea of the auction as representation of the free market and represent Marx's critique of such - the exploitative idea of 'commodity fetishism’ subtly instilled by capitalism's system of production and distribution which ascribes an independent, objective value and reality to a thing that has no inherent value - other than the value given to it by the producer, the seller, and the buyer of the commodity.

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