Sus-Food
This Project came to fruition as a culmination of multiple photographers working together to create a website on the topic of sustainably. During the project I helped direct and curate images, as well as building the website and publishing it. The work is published on a site based on the platform of a magazine.
Acessable at: https://susfood.cargo.site/
Cusgarne Farm
“Organic systems are sustainable, safeguarding food production into the future in the face of growing problems of resistance to today’s agro-chemicals and loss of topsoil through over exploitation of our land”
STARLING, Bill. 1992. ‘Organic farming’. Times, 29 August.
For our project we wanted to take a closer look at sustainable food for ourselves, to see what goes into it with our own eyes. We wanted to depict where it is coming from, the locations involved, stories of the people working there and the shops selling the produce. We researched this by looking into local businesses and trying to see if there were any aspects that stood out. I contacted Cusgarne Organic Farm to organise a visitation there, to see if it would be possible to talk to them about how they function as an organic sustainable farm, and to photograph their land. This was agreed with the owner (Greg Pascoe), and we went to visit the farm on Oct. 7th. Whilst there, I talked to the workers and found out about how they work and produce food and what they try to do to give back to the environment they are living in. The ethical values of Cusgarne farm were clear, as stated by Greg Pascoe, “If we do not back an organic food system, we are surely supporting another less beneficial one” (Pascoe 2020).
Excerpt from an essay I wrote in 2020
Organic Food
Regarding the images of the produce, I tried to show them in a more contemporary light. Drawing on previous experience with food photography and using the set up I had created, I wanted to photograph the foods in a way similar to that of my Cusgarne images; allowing the narrative to flow through them, giving way to a conclusion of the food’s life. This fit into the wider context of the group project, focusing on the reality of sustainable food. Our images play off each other, telling the story from each of our own perspectives. I wanted to focus more on the food itself, showing its life cycle, from farm to table. A key reason for this being my passion for cooking and my interest in healthy eating. From personal experience I’ve found that good food and exercise can alter your entire perception of reality.
Excerpt from an essay I wrote in 2020
Throughout this module I’ve found myself looking more and more at the products that I use and the food that I consume. Although being price conscious, I have started to try to be more sustainable in my day to day life. Talking to Greg at Cusgarne gave some perspective to the effect that buying cheap, and lower quality, produce has on the world and smaller businesses such as his own. Along with this, I’ve found that storytelling plays a larger part in my work than I originally expected. Moving forward I wish to maintain this level of understanding as to help push my work further and allow me to create a large pool of information to draw upon before starting a project.
Excerpt from an essay i wrote in 2020