In an thrilling first for the Awards, a choice of photos from this yr’s World Meals Pictures Awards sponsored by Tenderstem® Bimi® Broccolini shall be exhibited on the Museum of the Dwelling in London.
The Museum of the House is a free museum within the 18th-century Grade I-listed former almshouses on Kingsland Highway in Hoxton.
The exhibition will characteristic chosen works exploring the connections between meals and residential – from meals bringing individuals collectively for therapeutic and pleasure, households consuming in an on a regular basis context to photo-journalistic photos that present the truth of political points affecting meals and the house.
Forward of the exhibition, which opens on third June, we spoke to Sonia Solicari, Director of Museum of the Dwelling.
Sonia Solicari, Director of Museum of the Dwelling. Credit score: Em Fitzgerald
- As Director of the Museum of the Dwelling, how do you see the function of meals in shaping our experiences of house?
Meals is a strong a part of our sensory expertise of house. When requested about home reminiscences, a lot of our guests point out the scent of cooking, the consolation of household meals and the enjoyment of festivals and feast days.
Meals can also be on the coronary heart of identification and belonging. Recipes – handed down by way of generations or travelling with us after we transfer – can hold alive our hyperlinks to different occasions and locations.
The wrestle to place meals on the desk can also be a problem that shapes the home expertise. House is a part of a wider eco-system and the story of our meals provide chains can also be the story of our properties.
- The Museum of the Dwelling tells tales of home life by way of the ages. How has meals performed a component in these tales? Do you suppose our relationship with meals at house has advanced?
From the 1600s, which is the place the Museum’s narrative begins, there’s a protracted and constant historical past of consuming collectively. There’s one thing elementary and timeless about sitting spherical a desk with good meals and dialog. The interval room units in our famend Rooms By way of Time have all the time introduced areas of dwelling and human connection – a corridor in 1630, parlours within the 18th and nineteenth century, multi-purpose dwelling areas within the 1910s.
The importance of meals actually formed our newest rooms, which opened to the general public in July 2024, and have been expanded to incorporate kitchens and eating rooms primarily based on the true tales and co-curatorial steerage of the communities they signify.
Museum of the Dwelling focuses on the city expertise, so there has all the time been that rigidity between producer and shopper. This has arguably elevated as our cities have expanded over the centuries and we’ve got turn into additional faraway from the rising and harvesting. By way of consuming practices within the UK, there have been main adjustments within the twentieth century that noticed meals more and more consumed away from the eating/kitchen desk – extra consuming on the go and on our laps in entrance of the TV. Additionally, working patterns have meant that breakfast, lunch and dinner have meant various things to totally different individuals at totally different occasions.
The Lunch Rush by James Ward Breen. Shortlisted, Meals for the Household supported by The Felix Mission, 2025.
- From still-life work to fashionable Instagram meals tradition, photos of meals have been prolific by way of the ages. What do you suppose images provides to our understanding of house life and meals rituals?
Considered in mixture, images can inform us one thing about society’s values. An increase in Instagram tablescape images, for instance, may recommend a return to extra thought-about, slower paced eating practices and the standing hooked up to curating a meals expertise at house.
The accessibility of images additionally means that there’s extra alternative to seize the on a regular basis – and typically even the chaos of house – just like the aftermath of a toddler’s lunch or the top of a cocktail party. It allows us to speak a life nicely lived and in addition the complexities of household life.
Earlier than the digital age, images was very a lot saved for particular moments which is why, within the assortment on the Museum, we’ve got so many photos from the 20th and twenty-first centuries that seize celebratory meals rituals like birthdays and festivals. The birthday cake remains to be in all probability one of the frequent meals rituals– baked with love and involving candles, chanting and want making. The ‘cash shot’ of blowing with eyes shut remains to be so in style, permitting us to protect reminiscences and mark the passing of time.
The nonetheless life has such a protracted historical past and is entangled with worldwide commerce, colonialism and the worth of products. The enduring recognition of the nonetheless life – both in portray or images – is now additionally in tune with the mindfulness motion – specializing in the feel and form of the meals we eat and the fantastic thing about pure produce. Such photos will help us make sense of the world round us and to consider meals and the place it comes from.
- House is such a private idea, totally different for everybody. How do you suppose meals images can inform common tales about house whereas additionally celebrating cultural range?
Lots of the photos on the planet meals images awards depict the human feelings round meals, from a quiet contemplative second eating alone to the rowdy pleasure of consuming in a gaggle. Meals images can deliver into focus the experiences that unite us.
The historical past of meals and home cooking can also be the historical past of migration impacting the design and format of our properties and the rhythm of home life.
Diaspora expertise is among the strongest strands of amassing and programming on the Museum. Our imaginative and prescient is to disclose and rethink the methods we dwell as a way to dwell higher collectively – meals is a strong lens.
Tbilisi -The Secret Behind the Dishes is Love by Audrey Eve Beauchamp. Shortlisted, Meals for the Household supported by The Felix Mission, 2025.
- When you might add a seize of 1 food-related second from your personal house life to this exhibition, what wouldn’t it be and why?
The second I mastered gluten free ravioli and had all of them lined up in excellent rows on a pink gingham tablecloth on my kitchen desk – able to cook dinner or freeze. Because the dad or mum of a Coeliac and dwelling in a gluten free family, meals has taken on a specific which means for us. The factor my daughter most missed when she was identified was my Italian nonna’s cooking, so it felt vital to hone that talent and seize the second. It highlights the social influence of meals intolerances and allergic reactions, the challenges of meals preparation and the way vital it may be to have the ability to eat collectively and share meals safely.
- Pictures has the ability to seize moments of every day life and meals images specifically can evoke reminiscence, tradition and emotion. What excites you most about bringing the World Meals Pictures Awards exhibition to the Museum of the Dwelling?
On the Museum we primarily inform the story of house by way of our well-known room units. Room units are evocative methods to interact guests with the which means of house, but they signify simply one in all some ways we are able to deliver these tales to life.
The World Meals Pictures Awards exhibition permits us to discover, in even higher element, the human expertise of house and residential life. It’s additionally thrilling to characteristic such a various vary of labor from photographers at totally different phases of their careers. We love working with artists to discover the concept of house by way of a up to date lens, making a wealthy dialogue with the tales and settings of our historic rooms.
- Meals has all the time been a means for individuals to attach – inside households, throughout generations and between cultures. How do you hope guests will interact with this exhibition and mirror on their very own experiences?
For me, the exhibition evokes a spread of feelings, as we have a look at the individuals in addition to the meals. The photographs present the fantastic thing about meals moments and in addition a little bit of the messiness of life. We hope guests will go away the exhibition pondering in another way in regards to the world round them and may even really feel impressed to choose up a digicam and seize their very own experiences of meals.
The exhibition at Museum of the Dwelling runs from third June – seventh September. Discover out extra right here.
The Museum of the House is a free museum within the 18th-century Grade I-listed former almshouses on Kingsland Highway in Hoxton, London. Credit score: Wright & Wright/Hufton + Crow
