Matthew Atkinson-Smith

History of Photography

Professor Jason Machinski

Due on Monday, October 19th, 2020

I had many photos to work with, some of my friends and some of my friends making food, but the reason I photographed the subjects that I did was because I wanted to show the process of what went into making the dinner happen than the dinner itself.  Therefore, my photos show the process of the food being made, set up, and then the cleaned up afterwords.  I documented this series to show the process of our food through the celebration of ‘friends-giving’ since food is the focal point of the holiday.  The series of four photos show the different process required in make the food for the end result meaning the cleanup, so it exposes the true beginning, middle, and end of the celebration, even the part people usually leave out.  This project taught me how difficult it can be to choose a limited amount of photos from a big catalogue because there were so many pictures I wanted to use, but I only had the option of taking four.  The reason why I decided to only use photos of food for this project is because although I had great photos of my friends, you don’t get to see what went into making this celebration through those photos, whereas the ones I chose you get a glimpse into the work that went into making the nice table full of food and then the inevitable cleanup afterwords.  Finally, the process of food, from beginning to end, to me demonstrates that if people come together (as much as can be allowed within the pandemic) and work together, anything is possible, even making a nice Thanksgiving dinner comprised of college/university students (no adults) during a pandemic.