You Are What You Eat was born out of a passion to remind people of the importance of knowing where their food comes from. I believe there is a disconnect in many people’s minds between the food one picks up in the supermarket, and the produce that was used to make that food; produce in it’s purest form. The project aims to use portraiture to solidify this relationship, creating intimate visual connections between people and the rawest forms of the food they eat every day. It was done in collaboration with Accademia Italiana, an arts-and-design school in Florence, Italy.

In addition, the United States has recently ammended their SNAP (Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program), to allow people to use their food-allotment stamps to also purchase produce plants and seeds. This change is aimed at decreasing the nutritional deficits that many people living under the poverty line face, by increasing the potential for the consumption of fresh produce. However, this possibility is not well advertised, and many families – and retailers – are unaware that it is possible to purchase food-plants with SNAP benefits. In my future works, the hope is to use these portraits to create informational graphics advertising this new program throughout Food Banks in the United States.