A refrigerator is both a private and a shared space. One person likened the question, "May I photograph the interior of your fridge?" to asking someone to pose nude for the camera. Each fridge is photographed "as is." Nothing added, nothing taken away.
Mark Menjivar - http://www.markmenjivar.com/ - make sure to check out his taglines for each photograph, too.
I am very interested in Mark Menjivar’s work. His “You Are What You Eat” series – the photographs examining the inside of people’s refrigerators across the US – really drew my interest. In the project statement, Menjivar describes how you can learn a lot about a person by looking at the food that they eat. It’s also funny how personal a space one’s refrigerator can be. While some people flaunt their food choices, others are embarrassed about the quantity or quality of food that they consume. I think it is very innovative of Menjivar to delve into this subject and go into the homes of a diverse group of individuals to document their refrigerators.
ReplyDeleteMany of the photographs bring to mind our class lectures relating to food. I was particularly enthralled by the refrigerator belonging to the carpenter/photographer in San Antonio, TX, showing individually-wrapped portions of a 12-point buck in the freezer, along with a bottle of Tequila. First of all, ew. I am not a vegetarian, but this picture kind of makes me want to gag. Any kind of raw meat in such a high concentration is extremely unappealing to me. However, it does cause me to question the origins of this meat – did this person hunt the buck themselves? Was it slaughtered humanely? Was it wild? Also, you can see a box from 365 Organic, the Whole Foods store brand. Whole Foods is known for carrying organic, eco-friendly products, and it is ironic in my eyes to see one of their products in the same refrigerator as a gigantic pile of Buck meat. It definitely makes me think.
I’m enjoying the current sections that we are reading in Collapse right now, because I am very interested in global crises and spreading awareness about the historical and present implications of conflicts such as the Rwandan genocide.
This response is for the article “Nature at the Mall”. I found this article to be very informative but a bit ridiculous. I understand the hypocritical approach the author applies to the concept of buying nature from a department store, but I almost feel as he didn’t have anything better to criticize.
ReplyDeleteHis article was full of facts that I found to be quite interesting, such as the target consumer group for The Nature Company being the baby boomers. But, I found the main objective to be that of an extremist who’s ran out of corporations to tear down. Basically I see his point as this; shopping is bad, nature is good so, logically nature shopping is ok. If this is our logic then let it be, even if we are applying a “false sense of meaning” to the items we are purchasing. If shopping at the Nature Company makes people happy, let them shop. I that this author is an angry cynics who feels he must critically analyze every aspect of modern culture’s enjoyment.
No matter what, people will shop. If nature items sell, then sell them! The author took a random store and made people feel guilty for buying a geode from the shopping mall. First of all, if you live in Manhattan, where else would you purchase a geode? And if this somehow degrades the geode because it sat on the Nature Company’s shelf, then let the shoppers give meaning to the now “meaningless” purchase, if they so chose.
I like the Nature Company. I work as a full-time Nanny in the summer and I have bought numerous board games from their shelves. Shopping there gives me a sense of fulfillment; the games are not only fun but educational. Regardless of the Nature Company I would have purchased a board game for rainy days anyway, but now it serves other purposes rather than just that of entertainment. Not only does this make the children’s parents happy but also allows me to feel as if I’m contributing to the children’s learning. Whether or not this is a false sense of fulfillment is irrelevant. I don’t need a third party questioning my motives and asking if I’m an ignorant shopper.
To target this company as unethical is strange, because this company simply selects pre-manufactured items with a common theme and places them on their shelves. These items, regardless of the Nature Company, will be and are sold at other stores, just maybe not all under the same roof. So, the nature company has saved us “nature buyers” time and essentially gas by providing a one-stop nature shopping experience.
So, like my dad who would much rather buy his child a whale poster than that of the Backstreet boys, many others have also felt better about purchases from The Nature Company. If we will shop anyway, why not let it us purchase something with a bit of content. Instead of tearing down the company, perhaps the author could have spent his time refining The Nature Company’s product selection to better inform consumers of environmental issues and published that instead.
Mark Menjivar's work "you are what you eat" is a provocative piece, building dimension between the photographs and the tag lines. I wasn't surprised by the similarity between the items in the refrigerator. I expected seeing generally the same products. I was more interested in the tag lines which described the owners of the fridges. Many of the photos actually contradicted the occupation of the owner. One example is the botanist who I would of expected to have many vegetables and fruits, but in actuality the fridge was quite sparse with only a few packaged items and a Faygo.Of course some refrigerators matched with the life style of the person. In Menjivar's statement for the project he states that his hope is that we think about "how we care" about our bodies, others, and land. ADP III is essentially the same thing. We are exploring global space to our personal space and how we interact in these facets of our lives. My home project and my stuff project are examples of this idea. I read Culture Jam pages "51-96" and in a simliar way Lasn achieves the same success Menjivar's photographs do. Lasn is very explicit and detailed in his writing to the point where the images he creates through words appear real and emotional. He uses the word "cult" to describe our consumerism. I originally thought that was to strong of the word, but it really isn't because the affect of not using it would change the entire argument. He plays on the context of words like "thou shall not think", and "Life, Freedom, Wonder, and Joy". The argument that America and much of the world are in culture jam and therefore need to change or see the demise of the human race is well written and argued in "Culture Jam".
ReplyDeleteLooking at Mark Menjivar’s photograph documentation, You are What You Eat, I felt kind of disgusted. It seems gross from a few different angles. One is the amount of food we have in our refrigerators. It really seems excessive and wasteful especially when things in the refrigerator only last for a short period of time before spoiling. The one refrigerator that I found to be quite disgusting was the bar tender’s. The food in his refrigerator was only for a one-person household and he had enough food to feed a family. I won’t even get started on the amount of Styrofoam he was housing in there.
ReplyDeleteAnother gross aspect of this project was the stuff we choose to eat. These images are all taken in Texas so most likely most of these refrigerators belong to Americans. Most, if not all of the food in these refrigerators were processed, unhealthy food choices. Common food among these photographs was butter, mayonnaise, dressing, and soda. No wonder the average American is overweight. This aspect of the project reminded me of the photograph documentation of “What the World Eats” that Joe showed in lecture. Out of all the photos of the family’s food from around the world, I found the American’s amount and choices to be a bit embarrassing. It seemed that most families from other countries had much healthier and less processed food than the American families who had little or no fresh fruits or vegetables.
On a completely different note, I did find one thing odd about Mark Menjivar’s photo documentation. It was the way he chose to label people. For instance, one person was labeled “Community Volunteer”. Now, this person must also work to support themselves, but he chose to label them as a volunteer. Another person was labeled “Red Cross Board Member”, what does this have to do with their occupation? They must have a job and other aspects to their life. There are plenty of other labeling examples that don’t quite add up to any particular pattern except that he chose to refer more admirably to the people with healthier foods and referred to unhealthier in a less respectable way, using jobs as his evidence. Perhaps, when the owner’s job didn’t fit his intensions he referenced other admirable aspects of the person’s life. And as expected the “Community Volunteer” and “Red Cross Board Member” had healthier food choices, which leads me to believe this may be the case.
I think someone lied about the “as is” aspect of this fridge picture. I shudder thinking about the kind of person that has a flag in their fridge. Maybe that person was making a statement of their own and the photographer just happened to catch it. Oddly, this reminds me of my first college professor back at Mott. He taught a course called “Philosophy of Ethics”, which was basically a course that allowed everyone in the classroom to voice their shallow opinion about some topic unrelated to the discussion and for myself to write a fairly moody philosophical argument about love (or more accurately being “rejected” by a person that wasn’t attracted to me in the first place. In my defense however, he was most ambiguous about that. Somehow I got a 4.0 in that course.) This professor talked about his intense conversations with the head of lettuce in his fridge, which he claimed to regard as a divine entity of some sort. His point was that religion is subjective and beyond that the point is somewhat lost in the perplexity of having an immortal head of conversational lettuce. The reason why I bring this bit of nostalgic memory is that the fridge has become this strange shrine. The contents in it are, in many cases, the almighty reason for being. “To live to eat” used to be the paraphrased doctrine I followed, and I know there are millions that follow it as well. The quest is not even to find quality food or to take pride in the hunt or search of it; it is merely about the urge to consume. That one rule became as uncontrollable as a reflex, and applicable in broader context. Maybe the compulsion for consumption did not come from food abuse, but there has to be a root to this somewhere. I highly doubt that root is a one-strand deal like a carrot. It could be more like a cancer; something so ingrained among our genetic material that we need to force ourselves to overcome our own programming to solve this issue. The thought of over throwing a program is most terrifying, which explains the vast amounts of hysterical movies about robots taking over the human race. As obedient and predictable as we’ve become, are we capable of not only challenging and defeating our fear as a whole, and in turn proving the possibility of mechanical domination? I would like to say, with all of my ignorance, passiveness, and training up to this point, maybe.
ReplyDeleteMark Menjivar’s You Are What You Eat is a very simplistic yet eye opening project. I like the concept of looking at a place where people’s belongings are kept, and then realizing what items people value and keep in storage. In many ways, what people eat reflects who they are. In looking through Menjivar’s photos, some of these images struck me as belonging to a certain type of person. For example, there was a fridge containing mostly vegetables, which I would imagine coming from a vegetarian family. There was a fridge that contained mostly alcohol, which reminded me of a college frat boy. Not only were the individual items interesting, the quantity of items was also revealing. Some held massive amounts of all kinds of food; stuffed into corners, stacked on top of each other, and crammed all the way to the back of the fridge. Others however, did the exact opposite; there were fridges holding barely anything, to the point where I wondered why the owner even had one in the first place. I was reminded of my own fridge. The fridge in my dorm room that belongs to my roommate barely has anything in there. It makes the two of us want to buy more food just so that it won’t look lonely. There is literally a jar of peanut butter, one bottle of grape fruit juice, and an egg that was stolen from the cafeteria in our dorm room fridge. I have no idea why we have one, and because of taking this class, I feel guilty for using the electricity if serves such a minuscule purpose. Growing up, my fridge at home would either be packed or completely empty. I think it’s because my family procrastinated going to Meijer so often. My family would usually have meat, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, condiments, milk, yogurt, and juice in our fridge. The variety is what I’m use to seeing when I go back home. I like having a little bit of everything. As far as Menjivar’s work goes, I think this is a great way to make a subtle but influential comment about people’s edible possession. What we buy, what we do, what we eat, what we say, and what we think about all say something about us as a person. By realizing this, people may think differently about their actions and potentially how it effects the environment.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed thats artists photographs that you posted and yes they relate directly with what joe talks about in class and in what we're reading. We are what we eat and people need to begin to take that fact more seriously. If you eat genetically enhanced food we are going to be effected by it's chemicals and nasty biproducts. There is huge change in how we view our food, how often we eat it and how we get it, from just a century ago. We no longer eat dinner with our families our lives are too individulistic and thus we need our food to fit our schedule, fast and when we want it not when its available. Eating with the family was an event and a cherished one at that. Prayers were said to thank whoever for the food and its availablity to family. Food was a necessity and now it has turned into a casual pleasure. We no longer acknowledge the efforts that are put into retrieving food, the growing and the harvesting.
ReplyDeleteI myself am a victim to this distance to foods actual origin thus not thinking about how i'm getting it or if its reality, but i'm starting to get a clearer idea with the readings and lectures. it's hard to break away though from the convenience that is necessary in keeping other parts of your life possible and organized.
The work of Mark Menjivar grabbed my attention at first when I saw the "you are what you eat". However, after seeing images of what he had taken for his project, I lost my interest in the works because the refrigerators in the images, were so different from the refrigerators that I have been seeing in my life. I got the point on what Mark Menjivar was trying to show in his images by showing one refrigerator containing mostly meat inside or other refrigerator containing mostly vegetables.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure on weather the photos taken are really taken as it is or if it is because no one would have only meat and alcohol in there refrigerator or have only have fastfoods inside.
The refrigerator image of the carpenter really disgusted me in that the only thing that he eats is meat and alcohol as drink. Even though things in the refrigerator does not last that long, and the carpenter might change what he eats, thinking that he will be eating only meat for a week disgusts me.
I do not find anything aesthetically pleasing about Mark Menjivar’s series of refrigerators. The taglines become almost, if not more important than the images themselves--in this way the images cannot stand by themselves and have any significant meaning. However, when the two are placed in context together it defiantly makes observers speculate a persons existence, or possibly how their fridge contrasts the one their examining. When considering my fridge, I think it would be as banal as the rest, save for a few cans of hooka tobacco.
ReplyDeleteIt’s interesting how you could sometimes guess the occupation of the individual based on what you saw in their fridge; as was the case with the bar tender. I think the main point that this body of work drives home is how many people eat out of necessity alone, and how their refrigerators become a reflection of this.
The last image (a written compilation of everything he’s eaten in the last 365 days) is interesting in theory, but due to the way its presented it’s completely pointless--the words are so small you can’t even read it!
I think Mark Menjivar's "You are what you eat" is a very powerful piece. As it says, people are closely related to and they get affected by what they consume. I really liked the idea that to ask a question "May I photograph the interior of your fridge?" is equal as asking someone to pose nude for the camera. By just looking at this photograph, interior of someone else's fridge, I could kind of assume the country of origin, personality, appearance,
ReplyDeletefinancial situation, and his life style. This is not only a simple photograph that shows what one consumes, but this also reveals a deeper side of one person.
Looking at this photo and Mark's other photos,
I agreed and also disagreed at some point about his concept. There is a famous Korean proverb that says "If you see one's eating style, you can decide what kind of person he/she is." When I see these photographs, I first thought of this old saying. Food consumption plays an important role in human life and people should know that there is a possibility that they could be judged by what they consume. Therefore, I strongly agree to this photograph, because food is our primary source and the most basic item that human life requires.
On the other hand, I also had a point where I couldn't totally agree. I think that deciding people only by food consumption is very risky, because every person has different cultural codes. For example, Chinese like vegetables and it is their primary food. In the contrast, many Americans prefer meats over vegetables. However, you can't judge that Chinese people are poorer than Americans only because vegetables are cheaper than the meats. There can be a rich Chinese person who loves vegetables and does not like meat as much. So his statement is true at some point, but as it gets into the details, or some exceptions, it could be very wrong.
I also found interested and curious about was the American flag inside the refridgerator. I don't know if it is intentionally placed to convey a specific thought. but, I couldn't get the idea. I almost thought it as an abstract piece because it seems like the foods in the fridge looks more like left over Asian foods, but it also kind of symbolize the serious American obesity.
Because there are so much stuff in the fridge, it made me think about the photographs in many ways and realize what I consume and how it affects my life style. I have never noticed my life could be seen as what I consume everday in front of other people.
In response to the photographs by Mark Menjivar regarding the impact of what is in an individuals refrigerator, I am not sure that I agree that our refrigerator contents explain who we are as people. For instance the refrigerator that has alot of take out containers could have different meanings. We could be looking at a person that is so incredibly busy with work and school and different events in their lives that they just don't have time to cook. Or the person could be a lazy slug that picks up dinner every night because they are to lazy to cook. Now I think we can read into some of the refrigerators that we saw. For instance the one that was just filled with meat -- wow that is alot of beef in that refrigerator. It makes you wonder, does this person know someone who just slaughtered a cow, or is he trying to bulk up on protein?
ReplyDeleteThe reason I am not sure that your refrigerator is respresentative of who you are is because for myself I know I go through streaks. For a while I am into eating salads and overall healthy stuff, and then I get into a rut where I drink energy drinks and eat junk food.
Maybe the different ways people eat does respresent your mind set at any one moment in time. When you are feeling hassled and overwhelmed you eat on the run, and when you are at ease and going with the flow you eat in a more healthy way. There are those people that are more consistent with their eating habits, but I have to believe what you eat represents your state of mind.
I never really thought of a refrigerator as telling a story, but when you look at some of these photos it makes you think. You have a tendency to make a picture in your mind of who owns this refrigerator. It would be interesting to try and match the people to the correct refrigerator.
It seemed that those having the 'healthier' refrigerators were the more admirable people in the minds of the photographer. However, in my mind, eating healthy doesn't necessarily make you a better person, perhaps healthier, but not necessaryly better. There are plenty of wonderful people that have horrible eating habits and vice versa.
Although I found the concept interesting, and the pictures even more interesting; I am not sure I would conclude that our refrigerators tell the story of our lives.