BJP-online: When did this project begin and what was the catalyst for starting it?
Stefen Chow: The Poverty Line started back in 2010, but our discussions about poverty, economics and food began before that. Lin and I had similar family backgrounds – we were both with silver spoons in our mouths because our families were successful in business. However, before we got to schooling age, each of our family’s businesses collapsed due to a variety of factors. Our families struggled financially as we grew up, and we always appreciated the choices we had, however limited they were.
Several years ago I found myself in New York, US, and Kolkata, India, during the same week – the contrast could not have been more different. New York is full of glitz and skyscrapers, but you see beggars by Wall Street, and homeless people sleeping in the subway. In Kolkata, the poor slept on the road at night, because it was the only place they wouldn’t be shooed away – poverty was visible everywhere. It really got us thinking, ‘Is it better to be poor in New York or Kolkata?’. It was a difficult question, but it got us thinking.
Why did you decide to use food? What do you think makes it so visually powerful?
Everyone consumes and understands food, no matter which strata of society you are positioned in. We have a personal instinctive response when we look at food, and the quantities available; everyone has an opinion.
What about the newspapers in the background? What do these symbolise?
Initially, we were thinking about photographing the food on plain backgrounds, but quickly felt that the images lacked context — the message wasn’t just about the food, but also about the cultural and geographic context of the human stories we wanted to share. We paused the project for a while and went back to the drawing board. We tested out a few alternatives, and, in the end, decided on local newspapers, bought on the same day as the food.
These provided a visual marker of the location, and a time stamp, for when the statistics were calculated and the food was photographed, as well as suggesting the cultural symbolism of each country. Like food, newspapers are also available to a wide cross-section of society due to their regular distribution and relative affordability.