American Bodegónes by Liz Obert

Issue 184

This body of work reflects on mortality, the human condition, and our culture’s obsession with materialism. Through imagery inspired by Dutch and Spanish paintings, it expresses the transience of our existence by exploring our shared relationship with food.

As Western culture evolved from the Industrial Revolution, our food became factory- based and more processed. People chose ease over nutrition and created the fast-food industry. Now, there are places, particularly in American inner cities, where this is the only kind of food people have access to. As a result, many of us have lost touch with our food chain. I explore this through imagery of the raw source material that makes up engineered food.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, artists in the Netherlands created Vanitas still-life paintings that presented objects, representing earthly possessions and consumption, as a warning to the soul. In Spain, they created similar imagery in their Bodegónes, which were paintings of traditional pantries filled with vegetables and game. These still-lifes represented the increasing role of material possessions and their relationship to food.

I am inspired by these paintings because I find our present consumerism parallel to the cautionary themes of Vanitas and Bodegónes. Beyond their warnings, I’ve come to appreciate these works as meditations on the fleeting nature of existence and reflections of our shared human experience.

I draw inspiration from their baroque lighting and use of chiaroscuro and populate the photos with meticulously chosen items, such as animal parts like pig’s feet or chicken legs, along with fast or processed foods that are derived from the same animal part.

By creating photographs that explore the origins of our modern Western diet and the abundance of processed food. I aim to create narratives of our food’s sources, exposing the beautiful and grotesque of the natural world – with a little added humor.

Liz Obert (she/her) lives and works in Santa Fe New Mexico, USA.
www.lizobert.com | @lizobert.photographer