Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, Essay Example

The photograph used in this visual analysis paper is that of the Manzo family, in their apartment in Sicily. It shows the family sitting around a week’s worth of food (Pin, 2013). The food depicted in the photograph include bread rolls, tomatoes, onions, bananas, pasta, eggs, apples, rice, fish,  spaghetti, canned foods, spices, bottled water, and Pepsi and coca cola drinks. Sicilian cuisine reflects the cultures that established themselves in the Italian island for the past two millenniums. Although it shares common characteristics with Italian cuisine, have Spanish, Arab, Greek and French influences. Since Sicily is an island, fish and sea food is the staple. Food is a critical component of culture and the photographer uses it to portray Sicilian culture and traditions.

Typical Sicilian dishes comprise pasta con le sarde, which is made by sautéing fresh sardines in extra-virgin oil, deglazing using white wine, dressing with raisins and tossing with pasta. The dish is then garnished suing toasted bread crumbs. Another dish is pasta alla norma, which is common across the island and it comprises slowly cooked eggplant chunks that are tossed into tomato sauce and with pats and garnished using grate ricolla salata. Additional dishes include swordfish pie, stuffed eggplant rolls, spaghetti with garlic oil and hot pepper, egg-bread crumb soup, stuffed beef rolls, and variety of fruits.

The photograph was taken by Peter Menzel and Faith D’aluisio who travelled the entire globe to document what people eat. The photograph portrays what an average family consumes in a week and the costs in a detailed manner. Their objective was to raise awareness about the influences of culture and environment on the calories and costs of the world’s foods (Pin, 2013). This image in from their book “hungry planet: what the world eats”. Their objective was to better understand and explore what culturally diverse families consume in a week.

This photograph is formal because the photographers travelled the whole world documenting what different families consume in a week. The size is medium since it captures the food stuffs that the photographers want to portray. The colors are original because they reflect the true colors of the food stuffs. It is evident that the photograph is professional. The authors of the book travelled the entire globe with the objective of gathering information on what typical families consume. A project of such magnitude requires professionalism since it attempts to show how culture and globalization influences the food we consume. The graphic looks real and not modified because surfaces such as the wood surface are not curved (The University of Missisipi, 2007). Additionally, the picture is not grainy because no tool has been used to remove unwanted objects. Furthermore, the light in the photograph does not shift, which is evidence that it is real and not modified. Color filters are used in modified images to make objects appear lighter or darker. In the photograph, the family is shown in their kitchen and the lighting is constant.

The photograph was featured in the hungry planet photo gallery featured in time.com. Although the photograph is contained in Menzel’s book, posting it to Time.com was meant to ensure that it reaches a wider audience. The main objective of this photograph was to document what families from different cultures eat. However, the main argument is the move from traditional dishes to diverse global foods, which has negative influences on health. In the photograph, the influences of globalization are evident because families in places such as Sicily have access to global foods such as hot dogs and carbonated drinks. These foods are not native to Italy, but globalization has ensured such foods are available in such parts of the world. These exotic foods are responsible for the rising cases of obesity because they are processed and high in calories. Their availability also ensures people have more to eat and too often.  There is no other way to capture what people eat in different cultures that to take their photograph in the kitchen. Using other techniques such as portraits or story illustration would have reduced the credibility of the graphic representation. Photographs capture people in their real environments, and for a subject such as food there is no other better way of representing it.

I first encountered this photograph in the photo gallery of Time.com. The gallery contains a collection of photographs that document what families consume in different cultures across the world. I selected the photograph of the Monza family in Sicily because it is a key tourist destination in the Mediterranean region. Its cuisine is one of the tourist attractions because it represents the influences of several cultures. Fish and sea food, pasta, and its wine are well known in the tourist circuits. The influences of globalization on the foods consumed in Sicily are another factor that attracted me to this graphic. Some foods in the graphic such as hot dogs and carbonated drinks such as coca cola and Pepsi are manufactured by multinational companies and are found in islands such as Sicily. These foods have been blamed for the rising cases of obesity due to their high caloric content.

The light used in this graphic is naturally and it comes from window in the background, but it is soft. This means that it was taken during the day. The direction of the light casts a shadow on the left side of the photograph. The front part of the photograph is highlighted to clear show the different food stuffs consumed by the Manzo family. Furthermore, the surface of the photograph is rough because the shapes of food stuffs such as eggs, bread and fruits creates.

The intended audience of this graphic is anyone who is interested in understanding the impacts of culture and environments on the calories consumed across the world. From this graphic, it is clear that cultural components such as food can move from traditional diets to the complex plenty availed by global food production. This photograph may best serve global travelers because they can understand and appreciate the cuisines of different cultures. Additionally, it can help individuals interested in understanding cultural diversity and it impacts on diet.

The mood portrayed in the graphic is that of happiness and joy. The smiles and the bright colors are evidence of a happy mood, which is captured in one the most popular places in any family, which is the kitchen. The photographer has zeroed in on the foods presented on the table and the faces of family members. In conclusion, this graphic presents how globalization has influenced global diets. The move from traditional foods to new diets has led top health problems such obesity because people consume more food due to its availability.

References

Pin, P. (2013). Hungry planet: what the world eats. Time. Retrieved from http://time.com/8515/hungry-planet-what-the-world-eats/

The University of Missisipi. (2007). Digital photo manipulation: descriptive analysis of codes of ethics and Ethical Decisions of Photo Editors. New York: Proquest.