Seeing 1 (page 42)

Peter Menzel's photographic portraits of ordinary people's food in different parts of the world consists of four to six family members in each family and four different countries. The countries consist of Guatemala, United States, Japan and Chad. Each photograph is a picture of the family surrounded by all the food they purchase of one week. Typically this consists of meats, grains, vegetables, fruits and liquids. For each family the food is different based on where they are from and their background. The typical United States family, for example, will usually not have sushi seaweed in their pile of food and the family from Chad will usually not have any meats at all. Each family spends a certain amount on food each week. The food expenditure for a typical United States family is $242.48 and for Chad it is $1.23. Considering these prices, one can tell that the amount of food will vary because of the country the family is in and the background of the family. The families are dressed in custom apparel that represents where they are from and the background either consists of their home (living room or kitchen) or their home from the outside which in the Chad's family case is a tent. Each country has their own types of food and their own recipes that are used in their home. Some countries are richer or poorer than the other resulting in more or less food. One could tell the socioeconomic circumstances by these pictures. In some countries food is prepackaged but in others the food comes in linen bags that are reused all year round. Members of the family have to support each other and in some countries it is harder to do so than in others and the pictures reflect that. Each picture represents them as a family and what they eat for one week whether its one dollars worth or two-hundred dollars worth.

Faith D'Aluisio's accompanying summaries help understand what food is present and how much it is worth. It tells the reader  how much each food group costs, including beverages and whether or not their is prepared food.