Krystal Morgan’s photographs present us with evidence of our conflicted relationship with food. We privileged Americans have an embarrassing amount and variety to eat, unlike many people in the world. Fast food is cheap and plentiful. Garbage cans overflow with discarded food. We obsess on our body weight because we can.
These images are a food diary of everything the artist ate over three days. During an in-class critique, a student suggested calling the series “The Photo Diet”, thinking that if we simply took a picture of everything we ate, we might slim down- or at least we couldn’t claim that we ate ‘nothing’ but still gained weight.
Food is sensual, and Morgan’s pictures are beautiful. Her images do not repel us, and they are not infused with a sense of disgust or shame; they are simply what she ate. This approach suggests a healthy attitude and appetite, and the vision of an artist doing what many great photographers have done- using her images to see clearly what is in front of her.
