As part of a yearlong multimedia series, photographer Penny De Los Santos delivered an inspiring talk about her work in the presentation “Food Culture Through the Lens.”
The lights were dimmed over a standing-room-only crowd of more than 160 people. They had all come to see food and culture photographer, Penny De Los Santos.
“There is so much revealed about a culture through food,” De Los Santos said.
USF St. Petersburg hosted the talk held in the University Student Center ballroom Monday, October 26. The event kicked off the year long Food for Thought Lecture series.
De Los Santo’s started her talk off with humor, and expressed her love for what she had experienced in St. Petersburg as she ate her way through town before the talk.
“I went to a meat locker today, and I wanted to take a nap in there,” she said, laughing.
De Los Santos is a contributing photographer for National Geographic and Saveur, photographing food in more than 30 countries. She recounted memories from her visits to her favorite country, Mexico, where she photographed Diana Kennedy, a cookbook author who is considered the authority on Mexican cooking and food history, as well as trips she took to Senegal, India, Spain and countries in South America.
Her work can also be found in an array of cookbooks and publications, like Martha Stewart Living, Time, and Latina to name a few. One of her current projects is working with Target and the store’s brand Archer Farms.
During her talk, De Los Santos showed a collection of photos taken on many of her different assignments around the world, sharing behind-the-scene stories with each one. Her first food photography assignment was in Chili and Peru.
“Where are the flames, smoke and light? That is what I gravitate to,” De Los Santos said, displaying multiple images where fire, smoke or light were a large part of the scene.
One photograph she shared was from an assignment in Senegal, West Africa. Two women laboring over pots of food on the floor of a small space, one standing over the pots and the other sitting on the yellow tile floor. The women are dressed in bright traditional clothing, the steam erupting from the hot food covers much of one woman’s face – a powerful image.
De Los Santos told the crowd that she always starts in the market; where a plethora of story leads can be found because everyone – from all walks of life – will be there.
“I photograph what is happening around food,” said De Los Santos.
Two men are sitting at a table eating at one end of the photo, behind them is a stark white wall. In the far right of the scene, way up high, is a hanging framed picture of a couple. This image gave more of a story around where the subjects were and also left the gazer wondering who the people were in the picture on the wall. It is a brilliant photograph.
There were several photographs that simply exposed working hands tending to food. Other images revealed men fishing or women laboring in fields, market scenes, tables of food; all capturing the profound spectrum of food and culture.
As the lights came back on, De Los Santos had given the audience so much to chew on with her anecdotal stories, exotic images of the world, all-the-while conveying the passion she has for what she gets to do for a living. “Assign your own dream assignment,” she said in her closing.
Staff writer Angelina Bruno contributed to this report.
