Slaughterhouse Five
Anyone who has seen a James Nachtwey or National Geographic print knows the impact a single image can have over a person. At a photograph’s core is the ability to educate and inspire curiosity, which is what I aim to do by documenting slaughterhouses. This is a new project I'm working on, and I plan to document the process here.
In the US an estimated 9 billion animals are slaughtered every year, yet most individuals will never see one animal killed.
Thus, my goal with this project is to provide transparency regarding what people eat, where it comes from and how it’s processed. The initial inspiration for this project stems from Michael Pollen’s book “Omnivores Dilemma” where he traced the route of the industrial food chain to elucidate where our food comes from in an effort to educate the public in regards to a process we’ve become detached from.
While there are inherent challenges to gaining access to centralized food supplies, I have already gained access to my first slaughterhouse. With the level of persistence, research and networking I’m already engaged in I am confident this project can be actualized.
My plan is to shoot this documentary with a 4x5 large format camera, documenting meat industries spanning from individual hunters, local butchers to commercial slaughterhouses. At the culmination of this project the work will be printed, shown in multiple exhibitions (as well as in other media outlets), and the work will be submitted for publication.
These first round of images are from an alligator processing facility.
In the US an estimated 9 billion animals are slaughtered every year, yet most individuals will never see one animal killed.
Thus, my goal with this project is to provide transparency regarding what people eat, where it comes from and how it’s processed. The initial inspiration for this project stems from Michael Pollen’s book “Omnivores Dilemma” where he traced the route of the industrial food chain to elucidate where our food comes from in an effort to educate the public in regards to a process we’ve become detached from.
While there are inherent challenges to gaining access to centralized food supplies, I have already gained access to my first slaughterhouse. With the level of persistence, research and networking I’m already engaged in I am confident this project can be actualized.
My plan is to shoot this documentary with a 4x5 large format camera, documenting meat industries spanning from individual hunters, local butchers to commercial slaughterhouses. At the culmination of this project the work will be printed, shown in multiple exhibitions (as well as in other media outlets), and the work will be submitted for publication.
These first round of images are from an alligator processing facility.
