Sony Project: Pivoting My Concept

Due to a series of events I've had to pivot my Sony Awards photo series concept. Initially, I was aiming to photograph leading meat and dairy alternative products and shed light on the developing movement around "non-animal" animal products. The goal of this project was to elevate this movement and promote the reduction of environmental impact caused by the animal and agriculture industry. 

Over the past two months I've relocated temporarily to South Africa, therefore will be shifting my concept to focus on sustainable farming, rather than animal product alternatives. 

The Sony Awards Student Competition brief requires us to tell the stories of the people focused on building a better future for the world. My series aims to shed light on the sustainable farming industry, focusing specifically on a farm in South Africa (the Sustainability Institute) working to educate the community on nutrition and food sustainability. I’m planning to tell their story through food still lifes as well as through portraits of the members of the farm themselves (farmers, researchers, teachers, etc.). This project will fit the Sony brief as the concept focuses on the people working to build a better future as well as the products they are producing.

I will aim to relate this series to my existing work primarily through visual direction. My current work is quite bold and vibrant, utilizing bright flash and vivid colors to create fun and relatable scenes of people in the environments that make them most comfortable (ie. their homes, studios, etc.). Through this lens I’m hoping to capture both still lifes and portraits of the farm’s produce and workers.

My initial plan for this project was to display the future of food by focusing on the leading alternatives to animal food products such as impossible/beyond meats and various dairy alternatives.

I’m now traveling to South Africa, where there are not a ton of meat alternatives in the same way as there are in London or New York, so unfortunately I have had to shift my concept. I’m now aiming to portray a farm near Cape Town that focuses on sustainable food and farming practices. I’m hoping to interview and photograph Angela Coetzee - lead research consultant. Her Masters focused on production claims made for more sustainable chicken production in the Western Cape.

As previously mentioned, the existing work in my portfolio is vibrant and colorful. I was inspired by the work of Ted and Chelsea - a Brooklyn based duo that photographs food and drink in their studio. I love the graphic elements they bring to their imagery, abstracting the food into shapes and patterns of color and texture. I hope to use these aspects of their work in my photographs of the produce I will shoot from the farm.

I want to explore using various background colors to see what pops the most, as well as shoot at different angles and distances to see what reads the best. On a technical note - I will be shooting at a relatively large depth of field with a bare head strobe (hard light) in order to flatten the objects and make them feel more graphic. The end goal of these still life images is to portray the sustainably farmed produce in a vibrant and desirable way.

In addition to photographing the produce, I’m hoping to shoot portraits and group shots of the farmers and workers at the Sustainability Institute. I’m planning on isolating each subject from the farm environment by shooting at a low angle and using the blue sky as the background in order to keep the graphic and abstracted elements cohesive with the still life images. I’m also hoping to shoot super tight shots of produce being held by farmers. I may want to consider setting up an outdoor studio (by just hanging a sheet or canvas) on the farm so that I can photograph the portraits of farmers and workers in a more isolated environment in addition to the farm portraits.

In conclusion, I hope my project will shed light on the practices of sustainable farming and the importance of eating seasonally, protecting biodiversity and maintaining our environment and natural resources in a healthy way.