How much?! The absurdity of inflation in Argentina – photo essay

Cash is virtually worthless, it's cheaper to cover walls with peso bills than to buy wallpaper, and simple shopping trips turn into expeditions to find the best deals ... Photographer Irina Werning captures the chaos

Irina Werning had to buy new batteries for her camera flash the other day. The Buenos Aires-based photographer first tried her local supermarket, but the price was too high. She went to an office supplies store, a corner shop, a kiosk, a tool shop, another supermarket. This small errand had become an expedition in circumventing spiralling prices in a country whose inflation rates are projected to reach triple figures by next year - among the highest in the world.

You grow used to it. Since I was born, there's been inflation, even since before my father was born. It's such a part of our daily life that it's inside of us," Werning says. I am 46, and for 36 years of my life I've had double-digit inflation; on average, that's 80% inflation every year."

Werning photographed her husband papering walls with 10-peso bills - which is cheaper than buying wallpaper. Her husband's trousers are worn deliberately low, to show how exposed and naked we are to inflation'