What Are You Eating? The Project Continues

Have you ever wondered what weird things lurk in the food we eat? This is my graduate thesis which is a photography project that gives some insight into that topic. A long time ago I wrote a post about my project What Are You Eating. The image in that post is one of the original ones I created. Since then, the look of the project has changed considerably and I wanted to post an update.

The reason for the project is my desire to help promote awareness of what is in the foods we eat. So often I find that people are surprised at how terrible manufactured foods are for us. Most people have no idea. And while I don't advocate eliminating them entirely because it's just not practical, it's important to know what we are consuming because ignorance is not bliss.

My project combines two photos - one photo is beautiful and inviting, the kind of images you see in menus and food boxes that really make you want to eat the food. It’s the food in at its best and most delicious. The other photo in the pair is almost abstract and it represents what can potentially be wrong with that food. For example, it might be genetically modified or have artificial dyes or high fructose corn syrup.

What I aim for is that people start to read labels and become familiar with what they are eating and what they are feeding their children. We can't rely on food manufacturers to do what's right for us, their concern is not our welfare but their pockets. We have to be our own advocates.

The point of my project is to bring awareness to the harmful ingredients and/or practices that can be in our food. Things we would never think of and that the companies that make those foods don’t want us to know about because their goal is really just to sell more food. They don’t care if it’s good for us as long as we buy lots of it.

So the next time you buy something processed, look at the label and research the ingredients you don't recognize. That way you will know what you are eating.