Food

In Food I capture the reality of Dutch food production with clinical precision. While many of us imagine idyllic farms with grazing cows and sunlit fields, I reveal the highly organized, technology-driven world that actually produces our food. The images confront the paradox: we want food that is healthy, affordable, sustainable, and animal-friendly, yet these desires often conflict and require compromises.

Designer Robin Uleman diveded the book into six chapters – Source, Protocol, System, Location, Product, and Hygiene – and take the reader through a variety of production sites. From large-scale greenhouses and automated packaging lines to laboratories where plants and animals are constantly monitored, each photograph highlights the need for scale, standardization, and strict hygiene. 

The photographer are edited by Robin  in pairs with neutral, almost ironic titles. Playground shows piglets in identical pens, River depicts large circular tanks for farmed fish, and Lavatory reveals an ingenious system for managing pig waste. In Semi-finished, brown and white chicks move along a conveyor belt, separated by color and sex. These inversions of expectation both fascinate and unsettle.

Photographically, I alternate between wide, overview shots and intimate close-ups of machines, animals, and workers. Everything is razor-sharp, almost clinical, giving the images a mysterious, sometimes futuristic quality. Only in the explanatory captions at the back do the pieces of the puzzle fall into place.

My goal is neither to celebrate nor indict modern farming, but to invite discussion. I show that it can be as ingenious as it is unsettling – and that the truth behind our food is never simple or straightforward