MARIE’S TABLE
Early 2019 I travelled to Central African Republic to document food and health related issues. I decided to avoid the stereotypical approach by focussing on people’s possessions in stead of showing people’s faces. I took my inspiration from the aesthetic and iconography of Dutch 17th still life painting. Where the 17th century still life celebrated the newly globalised Dutch economy and the wealth and consumer culture that came with it, my photographs show us the lives of people who have little or no access to the benefits of living in the 21st century. In each home I visited, I asked the owners to select items of food and other possessions which were important to them, to create the centre piece for a still life. I deliberately chose a plush green background to elevate the status of the objects and to reference the sumptiousness of the 17th century paintings.
