A Portrayal of the Connection of Food and the Identity of an Individual in the Portfolio You Are What You Eat by Mark Menjivar Essay

Photographer Mark Menjivars portfolio called You Are What You Eat is a series of portraying peoples lives through looking into whats inside their refrigerators in different households across the United States. Menjivar captures the interiors and the contents inside different refrigerators owned by people of various occupation from an eye level view with the same diffused lighting. Each fridge contains different contents of food, including takeout containers, piles of alcoholic beverages, stacks of frozen red meat, pots, empty shelves, a frozen yellow snake, and occasionally vegetables or fruits. Some are well-organized and taken care of while some are scattered, left to grease up and stain. Some are more packed, repulsive, or colorful than others. The title for each photograph reveals the occupations of the refrigerators owners, such as botanist, housewife, science teacher, short order cook, carpenter, and street adviser. For example, Bar Tender owns a fridge full of takeout boxes, an American flag towel, and one carton of orange juice that are all squeezed in to fit in the fridge. CarpenterPhotographer owns a fridge that contains one tall alcoholic drink called Jose Cuervo, a big pile of red frozen meat filling three fourths of the fridge, and a few boxes of microwavable food. Street Advertiser owns a fridge that only contains one bottle of organic mayonnaise and a black plastic bag on the top shelf while the other shelves are empty or has crumbles and stains of food. Mark Menjivars intention is to portray the connection between the food consumed or not consumed and the identity of each person. He traveled across the United States for three years searching and investigating about hunger, foods us consume, and its effects on us as a person and as a whole community. He sought to explore the idea of a refrigerator being a private and a shared space and how each refrigerator looks different according to the owners, whether they are rich or poor. Thus, he captured each...