CREATIVE DIRECTION | GRAPHIC DESIGN | STRATEGY
CREATIVE DIRECTION | GRAPHIC DESIGN | STRATEGY
A friend of mine is a photographer and artist. I have helped him with a few of his side projects and we collaborated on the experiment, Sweet Meats.
Most of Americans have a sugar coated sense of where their meat comes from and under what conditions it is raised and slaughtered. And Congress recently passed legislation to keep us even more in the dark—no longer do suppliers have to label where the meat comes from at all. We are blindly content, like a party-goer swinging at a pinata which, in and of itself, is a strange game. We blindly beat a papier-mache animal until it explodes in... candy.... Food artists Henry Hargreaves, Caitlin Levin and I thought how strange this concept was and decided to make a literal pinata. Instead of filling our sugar coated pinata with sugary candies, we disguised pork products to look like yummy candies instead. The initial result was colorful and almost happy, but after destruction became a dark, gory mess.
Photography/Direction: Henry Hargreaves
Art Direction: Lawler Watkins
Food Stylist: Caitlin Levin
Assistance/"The Butcher": Teddy Nelson
Henry was recently a victim of a cycling hit-and-run a few blocks from his home. After an anxious journey through the ER with a gash to his throat, he was discharged. He was lucky. Just a few inches to either side of his fall and he might not be here today.
This event made Henry return to an old project, set aside: a series of images of ‘Ghost Bikes’ he had photographed over his years living and cycling in Brooklyn. These bikes, in their hauntingly decaying state, are memorials to fallen riders. They remind everyone who pedals past that we are often just a couple of feet from harm’s way….
In the US alone there are over 3 million people preparing for the end of time, this sub-culture is known as Doomsday Preppers.
Henry connected with some of them to discuss their Armageddon Menu’s. They are designed around their religious beliefs, lifestyles, location, health and what they think will work on the heels of the disaster they predict.
Initially he expected this to be a rather sensational series but as he spoke to some of the subjects he actually was surprised by the brilliance in their approach. They have been able to stand back and see the whole food system form afar and realize in any kind of disaster the food distribution chain is the first thing to break and they don’t want to be left vulnerable, if and when it does…
He created dishes that they will potentially be eating once the system breaks and they have become self sufficient. Through their choices of these foods I think their personal story comes to life.
By Henry Hargreaves
Graphic design by Lawler Watkins