19th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Altered Images
The Factory - the tearoom

The Factory is an ongoing series that aim to showcase data and statistics related to the production of dairy milk. Dairy farming and its industry has a long history of unsustainable practice which also highly affects our environment and climate. Dairy milk has become a commodity that has been overproduced to meet demands while ironically plenty also goes to waste. In industrial farming, cows are abused, forcefully impregnated and separated from their offspring. As an economically driven system that is extremely difficult to alter in a short period, this series is my artistic approach to raise awareness and provoke some transparency of this food issue. The artistic methodology behind this series is to illustrate a food-related agenda we consumers are experiencing while being paired up with a matching spatial environment as companions. This series investigates the dairy milk industry by translating data and statistics about how much this commodity is produced, processed, consumed and wasted. To further illustrate this food issue, this series is shot on location at the UNESCO heritage site - The Van Nelle Factory in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The background is chosen for its stunning and distinctive modernistic spatial interiors and its visual connection to a mass-production setting. This image, The Tearoom, indicate the type of food waste in the Netherlands in 2019 (Bread most wasted at 33%, dairy goods 23%, vegetables 17%, fruits 14% and potatoes at 13%)

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 06.2021
Date Uploaded: 11.2021
Photo Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Camera: NIKON Z 7
Copyright: © Phyllis Wong