"We are what we eat
“This project uses photography & scanography to investigate one of the important elements of human habitat: food.
When I’m in China I always notice people on the streets carrying plastic bags that contain cooked food while walking fast to somewhere. By peeping at their plastic bags I can see what they are having for a meal. Sometimes the shape and form of the food are being distorted into something rather abstract and hard to recognize. And I was intrigued by the transformation that happened to content. To me the food in the plastic bags becomes a piece of sculpture. How food has been presented can be interpreted in different ways under various cultural contexts. Are we what we eat? Why do people choose to eat in a certain way? What’s the culture and history behind a food way? With questions I begin this exploration. “ I quote from my proposal.
When I think about this project, I immediately connect myself with still life photographers. I always like taking still life photos, and I used to work in New York as a product photographer. Part of a job for me was to staging the product in different scenes to tell a story. I appreciate Irving Penn’s still life photographs. He is very creative and always allow audience to see food in a different way, finding unique beauty in food. I especially like his image of frozen fruits. It has design elements in it. He change the function of food. The food in his work is no longer acting as food, but a piece of artwork. The transformation is magical and that’s what I also want to achieve in my work. Although his work is mostly recognized as commercial/fashion photography. I think he is far beyond that category. Another photographer came to my head is Jan Groover. Jan’s still life of forks and spoons also has this sense of transforming ordinary daily object in to something else. I learned a lot by just look at how they compose their work. As I search deeper into contemporary artist who also practicing still/food photography. I find some really fascinating works by Arden Surdam, Maisie Cousins, Beth Galton, Laura Letinsky. They are all female photographers. And their works are distinctly different from some male photographers I find inside this critical framework. The male artists I looked into are Matin Parr, Dan Bannino, Gregg Segal, Stephen Shore, Roe Ethridge. I will include the male photographers that I mentioned here such as Gregg Segal, Roe Ethridge later throughout the semester. Here I want to talk about why I think they are different. The works by female artists are more subtle and full of metaphors. And the works by male photographers are more straight forward and direct. The use of colors are also different, even the food materials they use can be different. By looking through their works, I realized that how different culture background can influence people’s understanding about food. And largely these works talks about food under western culture context.
I realize that when I look into my critical framework the community of practice are lacking my culture relation. I’m born and raised in China. I went to United States to study when I was 17. And ever since that I became a nomad. I’ve been to many places. I’m constantly moving from apartment to apartment, city to city, Boston, New York, Florence, Beijing, Melbourne etc. I live, study, work all far away from my hometown Xian. I never stayed longer than 6 months in Xi’an ever since 2009. But the first thing I miss is food in XI’an whenever I go. To me food is a very important connection between me and my culture. If I can find a Chinese supermarket or Chinese restaurant abroad, I’ll relax immediately no matter how unfamiliar with the city that I moved in. So when I came back to Xi’an in November 2019, I didn’t expect to spend so many time in Xi’an. As I’m in Xi’an, I get more time to reconnect with my hometown. Yet I sometimes feel distanced even to where I grow up. Although as a foodie I accept all kinds of food, I enjoy western food and willing to try new food all the time, I find that not a lot of people looking at food this way. And how Chinese food are read as symbolic and icons rather than truly understand the culture behind it rarely been discussed. Through some Chinese movies like LI AN and Zhang Yimo’s work, as well as youtube travel videos or live food shows on tiktok, maybe western audience can start to getting to know what food are like in China, are not often what’s been portrayed in western countries called Chinese food. But i don’t see many photography works that contribute to food in China. My intention is not advertising or trying to let people know what Chinese food is. I want to look deeper, I want to reestablish my connection with my hometown by looking at local plastic food culture. And it maybe will look different from what western photographers approach, I don’t know yet.