Why we look at animals - Are we Predators or Prey?

There can be various understandings on why we may look at animals I have included a list below of many different ways and reasons of why we do.

Culture
Religion
Food
Survival
Knowledge
Understanding
Companionship
Friendship
Loyalty
Emotions
Strength
Status
Farming
Money
Trade

and the list goes on..

But the first thing that comes to my mind out of it all are two main things food and friendship. We have all herd of the term 'A man's best friend' which mainly relates to a dog and his loyalty to a man but how can we see a dog as a friend an animal which shows emotion, friendship, loyalty and protects you while others may see an animal such as this as food?

Yes it may seem wrong and it may seem strange and I myself would never consider a dog being used as food and would never even think about eating an animal such as dog but the one thing that people would consider before they even think about a dogs emotion or feeling is there will to survive. Many people believe that eating certain animals are wrong but if you were to put yourself into a jungle an area full of predators any animal which is wild would not think twice before they would try to attack you since they need to feed themselves and there young.

Yes we do not live in the wild but what is it that makes us think eating certain animals are wrong? I believe its the simple fact of human contact if an animal is exposed to human contact that animal could become part of your life it creates an understanding between both human and animal and this relationship becomes so strong that our emotions and feelings for an animal grows the more time we spend with a particular animal but if you were to communicate with a tribe that may live in the Amazon Jungle they would not understand it the same way we do because for them any food is vital for them to survive.

Think about it if all we had in this world were animals and humans and you had the choice of killing any animal to be used as food to survive or not killing an animal which will result in your children not being fed which will result to death ...which would you choose?

The outcome ...we are made as both predators and prey we are generalists we adapt to survive no matter what the situation but sometimes adapting to something to much can be our biggest downfall.

Food Video Research - Bizarre foods & Gordon Ramsay

The video above is from a TV series named Bizarre Foods where Andrew Zimmern a documentary travel and cuisine show host and samples some of the worlds weirdest foods. In most of his videos the foods are useually in countrys which are much less developed and have great traditions in their culture.

I have also uploaded this video to show that certain parts of an animal are still used or being brought back in today's cooking by very well known chef such as Gordon Ramsay. 

It seems as if people are scared of what they now eat because of the way a certain food may look or the type of texture it may be making many people out there very picky with what they are eating. In many house holds within england I very much doubt that many would cook using the brain of an animal where as in some country's usually the less developed and poorer country's will have these types of food everywhere since they are more dependant on food where as well developed country's are not.

The Essential Africa - Michael Poliza

For one of my projects I was told to look at a book relating to animals and chose to look at Michael Poliza's Essential Africa.

Within the book Essential Africa Michael Poliza a photographer who introduced Germany to the digital world goes onto a journey of discovering a wonderful country and its amazing wildlife some of his great photographic work can be seen in this book using his unique approach to the wildlife. An example of this is of a close up image of a Lion even though he broke the rules by not showing the lions eye the image itself shows the detail of each strand of hair on the Lions face.
What Michael Poliza did is stand out by taking something which has been seen before but completely changing the way it is viewed by using different angles and focusing the camera on different areas of the subject itself.

I believe that every photographer should have there own unique style to there work and Michael Poliza shows this throughout the book and not only does he do this with the animals but also the landscape in which he is in.

"Africa is unlikely to change the way you think about Africa. But it might change the way you think about photography" This is written on the back of the book which really stood out to me because photography isnt always about what you see its about what you can create and I am a strong believer that this is one of the most important aspects of photography itself to create something unique. Sometimes breaking the rules is not a bad thing it is something which will show someone a different viewpoint to a particular subject which shows us that not everyone is the same and every picture is different because they are all unique in its own way.

John Berger - Why Look At Animals?

I have been looking at John Bergers Why Look At Animals for a screen printing project which I have been working on this project will allow us to use and learn about Screen Printing. My main focus on photography is food and I have been going through many different ideas of how I could use Animals and food together to create a Screen Print. Below Is a summary of John Bergers work and my thoughts on it.

John Berger tells us that the domestication of cattle did not begin as a simple prospect of milk and meat. Cattle had magical functions sometimes oracular, sometimes sacrificial. 

I believe that in modern day civilisation people have changed there views tremendously on animals in terms of keeping pets or what animals we eat why we may eat them and how everything is prepared. An example of this can be seen in the times of Ancient Egyptians and how they may have worshipped the cat to an extent of creating statues and for religious beliefs where as now we see cats as pets and nothing more. 

Another example of this is the amount of people who choose to be vegetarians because they believe that eating an animal is wrong where as a long time ago people may have not had a choice like that since food was of great importance to survive since there was a much bigger lack of food back then compared to how it is now.

Many animal sacrifices may have been made in the old days but now it is very rare to see these types of so called gatherings or ceremonies. Many animals all over the world are considered as food and some to an extent that certain parts of a particular animal are seen as delicacies and are still seen as delicacies in some country's to this day. I will be looking further into the food world of why people may see these types of foods as delicacies and how food from animals is not seen the same way as it may use to be.

My Food Photography

I am a very keen food photographer since this is what interests me most and since I find that I am most comfortable working within this area of photography. Below you will see some of the images which I have taken some of these are included within my portfolio since I believe them to be such strong food Images and very recent modern styled food.

Past Images - BA Final Degree Project

Below you will see 3 Images of my final degree BA project which again relates to food but with a difference as you can see the images show an army themed image which I gave myself the task of using only army rations to create something visually appealing, a modern food image and a future preservation food image using a vacuum food sealer. The reason I have included this within my Blog is because I would like to take the 3rd stage of that particular project and expand it for my final idea looking at Food Preservation & Sustainability.

Tick/Check Lists

There are many ways in which I develop my ideas when it comes to the way I work and one of these ideas is to look at what is going on with the world today in relation to food and how I could develop a certain project relating to photography.
I have always worked with art, design & photography since I am a firm believer that if you would like to create something unique and something individual than using various skills and ideas you have gained over the years is very important.

When working with Ideas I usually think about something solid in my mind and stick with it but I do often create brainstorms and tick lists to help me develop my ideas so that I gather information from the research I have done and merge them with the ideas I first thought of.

Here is an example of how I would create a simple tick/check list.

Week 1

1. Read through brief thoroughly 

2. Gather Ideas

3. Begin Brainstorm/Checklist

Week 2

4.      Begin main idea 

5.      Input of main idea

6.      Research main idea

Week 3

5. Prep of main idea

6. More Research

7. Create written document of whats needed

Week 4

8. Update logbook

9. Find out pricing/ordering materials/objects needed

10. Begin looking for/ordering materials/objects needed

Week 5

5. Put together main idea

6. Photoshoot

7. Photoshop

Week 6

8. Finishing touches

9. Update logbook/list

10. Final outcome

Introduction to my work & Blog List

From an art & design background to digital photography I have always worked digitally and for me photography is the digital version of creating art. I have always been keen on food coming from a turkish cypriot background my cultures food has always been around me I grew up eating foods which are very well known in today's society to foods you may not have ever seen or tried before.
As a photographer I have researched and worked with different area's of photography from portraiture, landscape, still life, food and fashion but the one style of photography that always stood out to me has always been food. I have always had an interest in food photography not only because I enjoy eating various types of foods and eating at many different restaurants but also because of the unique styling that goes into food photography which I call ...Art on a plate.

I have created a list of what I will include within this blog relating to my work since I find tick lists to be very helpful and straight to the point. The list includes:

My current work

How I work
Ideas
Timelines/Ticklists
Sources/Research
Preparation
Equipment
Photo Shoots
Programs/Tools used
Edit/Backup
Final Outcome

More will be added to this list as time goes by.

I will be taking you through how I come up with my idea's, why I work in the way that I do whilst also looking at problems and finding solutions to these problems along the way.