SCHMIDT, Michael - Food

ALSO AVAILABLE AS SIGNED COPY; IF INTERESTED, PLEASE SEND E-MAIL REQUEST FOR PRICE!

Background information

"The out-of-print photo volume, 'Lebensmittel' ('Food') by Berlin photographer Michael SCHMIDT is the result of his latest obsession, the mechanized, industrialized food system of contemporary Western culture. Using his trademark style combining social documentary and urban topographic, he explores the fascinating topic of how we feed ourselves, from the farm to the table (or the fast-food restaurant). The book was published with an exhibition, so the book worked as a catalog, too. At the same time it was the last book which Michael SCHMIDT co-worked with until the end.

Content

This impeccably produced photo volume, 'Lebensmittel' ('Food') by Michael SCHMIDT, a clothbound, embossed and slipcased photo volume, contains a series of images only – no text – that looks at the processes and residue of the food system in Europe. The photographs - in color as well as in black and white - are arresting, and the subject matter urgent, whether it’s a huge pile of discarded food or the details of turning nutrition into big business." (slightly adapted text, © Snoeck Verlag, 2012)

Additional information

"From 2006 to 2010 German photographer Michael SCHMIDT traveled to the European continent and the Production, processing, packaging and presentation of food photographed. After five years of planning and realization, the monumental essay became museum and in one accompanying publication presented for the first time: 177 images from everyday life in the agricultural and food industries, which are not only important Branch of the economy, but also indirectly the political and social self-image of the Reflects population. Field workers, farms, fish farms, large bakeries, pre-packaged Sausages and landscapes used by the food industry - it is a realm that Michael SCHMIDT lit up with his painfully realistic look.
As much of the food in Europe is anonymously produced and processed, so the places where Michael SCHMIDT photographs are unrecognizable: he dispenses with local references and instead, it places the general in the foreground. The extensive loss of local reference makes it impossible for the viewer to decide whether there is a slaughterhouse in Spain, France or England, an apple washing machine in Germany or Italy. The conditions that become visible in the pictures convey the threatening feeling of omnipresence and closeness. The motifs are not intrusive, but designed
to work with one to develop a certain delay: clear and exemplary." (freely translated and slightly adapted text, © Museum Morsbroich, 2012)

About  German photographer, Michael SCHMIDT (1945-2014)

Photo books by and about Michael SCHMIDT