An Exploration Of Our Current Relationship With Food
By John Rivard
5 July 2008
What is the first image in your mind when genetically altered food is mentioned? How did you feel when you first learned that most of the corn and soy products you have been eating for the past few years has been genetically modified – and no one bothered to tell you ahead of time? Do you think it is the right of the largest and most profitable agribusiness corporations on the planet to force more and more of these artificial food products upon farmers and ranchers – and to shut the buying public out of any debate about the merits or safety of these products – just to increase their profits even more? These are the questions I am exploring through my current photography project and it all started a few months ago with one simplistic stock shot to try to illustrate the concept of "modified food". As the old saying goes, "one thing led to another led to..."
Thinking about possibilities for concept photos for my stock portfolio and drawing on my background as a chef I hit upon the idea of "modified food". The first image that popped into my head was shiny chrome mechanic's tools working on an egg in a sterile white environment. I gathered my props, set up the studio and came up with "Engineered Food 1" within a few hours. I liked it and quickly tried out a few more variations, ultimately deciding that simpler was better and choosing "Engineered Food 2" as the best of the shoot.
As the props were rearranged and the lighting adjusted during this series it occurred to me that this was important issue than evoked strong emotions and was worthy of further exploration. I decided that a visual exploration of this concept could not only produce more stock images, but also provide important social commentary and help me sort out my own feelings on the subject. Incubating these thoughts for a few nights distilled my personal reactions down to fear, anger, hubris, revulsion, wonder and a small element of humor.
Having a more solid conceptual base to build on, I took the eggs a little further with "Engineered Eggs" series. It took a while to get the internal alien glow worked out, but these are straight-out-of-the-camera single exposures. One more short session of brainstorming produced "Engineered Eggs 4" with a "hatching" plant. At this point I felt the eggs had taken me as far as they could.
That was when the wood mannequin entered the scene and the "Automated Food" series was conceived. These images were more about the impersonal handling of food in our modern preparation and distribution system than about the food itself. The shots are meant to convey how separated we have become from the food that sustains us.
Next, the mannequin begins to take part in the "engineering" of the food items. Giving oddly colored injections and assembling mismatched pieces of fruit, the mannequin takes the humanity out of even the laboratory work. This is the faceless representation of big agribusiness making artificial food with a total lack of humanity.
This project is leading me but I don't yet know where. It has become clear that these are protest photos against the huge and uncaring modern food production system. Too much of our food supply is in too few hands and we have too little say over what and why and how things are done. Food is what keeps us all alive and we have been slowly and silently shut out of the process. Most decisions concerning our food supply are now made according to what is best for a large corporation rather than on what is best for the people who will be eating the product. I hope this photo project can raise awareness and make a difference.
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