AMY D'AGORNE

“…beyond the elemental act of day to day nourishment, food, like gold, functions as currency.”

— Ackerman, 1990, p.129

Peeling the Paris Green investigates industrialised farming’s impact on the rights of indigenous knowledge and the fight for food sovereignty amid rising global food insecurity. This research-driven project takes a rhizomatic approach to the humble potato, weaving together imagery from UK genetic engineering labs, Peru’s indigenous-led Parque de la Papa, the International Potato Centre in Lima, and performative still lifes. Through this diverse visual language, the project critically examines the future of food in the era of climate crisis.

Introduced to Europe by Spanish conquistadors just 400 years ago, the potato has since become a staple of global cuisine. It’s credited by many food historians with driving Europe’s population boom and, indirectly, the Industrial Revolution. Today, it is central to the struggle for food sovereignty in an increasingly globalised and monopolised food system.

The genre of photography utilised within this project is as rhizomatic as the subject itself. Playful and performative modes of storytelling are used to question photography’s ability to say anything about labor relations or underlying capitalist mechanisms of, in this case, the food industry. Consequently, the project is told through a mixture of discernibly disparate visuals that disrupt the narrative storytelling that is all too familiar within documentary photography.  

CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION