Recently I was in San Fransisco for a day, and stopped by the Museum of African Diaspora (MoAD). There was a show of photographs of families and their food.
Hungry Planet: What the World Eats organized by COPIA, The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts. This fascinating photo essay documenting 30 families from 24 countries provides a thought-provoking analysis of worldwide food consumption. Long known for their coverage of international feature stories and books on world culture, science, and the environment, photojournalist Peter Menzel and writer Faith D’Aluisio investigated food and eating habits around the world, documenting a fascinating exploration of comparative world nutrition. For their study, Menzel and D’Aluisio spent time with typical families in each country, discussing their eating habits, calculating a week’s worth of food purchases, and accompanying families to the market place to document local customs and traditions.
I started looking at each family and reading short narratives about each of them. These were displayed along with a list of their food for a week and how much it cost. After a few I was totally engaged. For several reasons:
- the composition of each family was so different
- you could see a relationship between how people looked and what they ate
- there was a huge disparity between families in various countries
- there was a lot of junk food, especially soda
Then I got to thinking about the logistics of putting a show like this together. As a photographer I started looking at the quality of the images and lighting. Neither food nor people are easy to photograph, and here were incredible images of both. The images were enhanced by the narratives and well as the data. All of the elements combined to tell a story that unfolded across the globe as you walked through the exhibit.
It was a near perfect juxtaposition of communication vehicles. Even video would not have conveyed it better, since you needed to stand and contemplate each image to begin to notice all the details.
The book that goes along with the exhibit takes it to another level. There are more photos of the families, their context, stories, and more facts about the countries they live in. It’s incredibly compelling, and a great example of how image, data and story together can communicate in a way none of them individually can achieve.
The Museum of African Diaspora is at 685 Mission Street, San Francisco. The exhibit will be there until January 20, 2008. You can see other places the exhibit will appear, or arrange for it to visit your area here.
