Looking at our food

Two Queens photographers and two Manhattan photographers are bringing their talents together to take a closer look at the food we eat in the upcoming exhibition “What’s for Dinner? A Provocative Look at Humanity’s Food Resources.”
Manhattan residents Nancy Sirkis and D. Brandon, Astoria resident Barbara E. Leven, and Jamaica Estates resident Joyce Morrill first met as members of Professional Women Photographers (PWP) who were working on an exhibition committee. By the time they completed all the work for “Elegy for Eden,” which featured works from 96 photographers, the four women had become very close friends.
More than a year ago, Leven came up with the concept for “What’s for Dinner?” and asked the other women to join her. She had been following the work of food journalist Michael Pollen and started to become more aware of food.
“I used to walk past butcher stores averting my eyes,” said Leven, who started studying photography after graduating from Queens College. “At some point I stopped averting my eyes and [started] really looking at these things and decided this was my new project.”
Professional art advisor and consultant Brandon said that when she heard about the project she thought it would be fun since each photographer had different opinions and interests.
“We all concentrated on something very different,” said Brandon, who focused on candy and processed foods.
Sirkis, a photojournalist who now does fine art photography, said that there is a disconnect when it comes to the pleasure of eating and that in the United States the fast food culture continues to spread. While photographing in Morocco, she also noted the difference in how food is handled and the care that goes in to creating a meal.
Morrill, a former social worker who began doing photography more seriously in 1987, said that when she heard about the concept one aspect she began to think about was how people rarely think about the price the animal has paid or what happens to items or animals that are eaten. She also said that there is a celebratory quality about an animal that has sacrificed its life.
“I think part of the show is to make this awareness between the relationship between the hunter and the hunted and the eater and the eaten,” Leven said. “It all becomes part of our bodies and I think that American food culture has a disconnect between what we eat and how it got there.”
The four photographers went off on their own to take pictures and also went on some group trips. They also took photographs outside of New York in other states and other countries. Some of their subjects were chicken markets in Queens, the Fulton Fish Market, foot markets in Morocco, seafood in Maine and processed foods such as candy.
“What’s for Dinner?” will be on display at the MH Art & Framing Gallery, located at 9 West 20th Street in Manhattan, from October 11 to November 29. There will be an opening reception on Saturday, October 18 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Leven said the exhibit features between 35 and 55 photographers. Along with images being displayed on the walls of the gallery, there are bins where additional ones can be seen.
For more information on “What’s for Dinner?” visit www.mhartandframe.com or call 212-242-1252.