What do you eat in a day? In a compelling collection of photos and descriptive text, photographer Peter Menzel and writer Faith D’Aluisio answer that question for 13 people from around the world. The portraits are organized by the amount of calories consumed, from a low of 800 for a Maasai herder in Kenya to a high of 12,300 for a binge eater in Great Britain, as well as listing every item that person consumed in a single (although not necessarily average) day.
Interesting, engaging, and at times disturbing, the portraits offer a unique insight into other cultures. They also give our own diets a more global perspective, and allow us to consider some of the wider implications of our food choices. The material is drawn from the recently published What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets, a follow-up to the highly acclaimed and award winning book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats.
The exhibit at Touchstones Nelson will also be the first time the portraits from What I Eat have been shown at a public gallery in Canada!
Portraits from What I Eat were previously displayed at the Boston Museum of Science, while work from their previous award-winning book Hungry Planet have been shown at prestigious venues such as The Museum of Civilization in Ottawa . “ It’s great to bring something like this to Nelson, ” says exhibit curator Rod Taylor, “it’s so timely – being the first in Canada is really just a bonus.”
Running concurrently to this exhibit, the Nelson Public Library will host What Nelson Eats, a supplementary display featuring portraits of five local individuals.
Using the work of Menzel and D’Aluisio as inspiration, the portraits were photographed by Karen Redfern, with text developed by curator Rod Taylor.
The exhibit will run from September 15 to November 18, with an opening reception scheduled for Friday, September 21, 7 to 9 p.m. Touchstones Nelson: Museum of Art and History is located at 502 Vernon Street. For information call 352.9813.
