Data + Design Project

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats in a Week

Saturday 04.27.2013 , Posted by

What_The_World_Eats_Bhutan

Well known for his eye-opening book Material World: A Global Family Portrait where he asked an average family in 30 locations to empty out their homes to show their possessions, Peter Menzel came up with another brilliant book idea. Teaming up with his wife Faith D’Aluisio, the duo got to spend time with 30 families around the world and analyze their weekly groceries for Hungry Planet: What the World Eats in a Week. In the book they describe the weekly food purchases and costs, showing photographs of the family at home, at the market, in their community, and these portraits of the entire family surrounded by a week’s worth of groceries. [Read more...]

Material World: A Snapshot of World Possessions

Tuesday 09.20.2011 , Posted by

The Yadev family of India, their worldly possessions carefully organized upon the dirt in their front yard: a simple bed, pictures of deities, bags of food. The image is part of Material World: A Global Family Portrait, a project started in the 90′s by esteemed photojournalist Peter Menzel.

In each of 30 countries, Menzel used data from the World Bank and United Nations to find statistically average families: average in size, location, background, and occupation. He then coordinated with 16 leading photographers to create images that give us a social and geographical snapshot of peoples lives and the objects that fill them. Beautiful. [Read more...]