Gregg Segal

As globalization alters our relationship to food, I’m making my way around the world, asking kids to keep a journal of everything they eat in a week. Once the week is up, I make a portrait of the child with the food arranged around them. I’m focusing on kids because eating habits, which form when we’re young, last a lifetime and often pave the way to chronic health problems like diabetes, heart disease and colon cancer. Despite growing awareness here in the US about the harm of eating processed foods, awareness hasn’t yet led to widespread change. Obesity rates are still soaring; the incidence of diabetes has tripled. For the first time in many generations, life expectancy in America is declining and the main culprit is empty calories. I’ve been encouraged to find regions and communities where slow food will never be displaced by junk food, where home cooked meals are the bedrock of family and culture, where love and pride are sensed in the aromas of broths, stews, and curries. When the hand that stirs the pot is mom or dad, grandma or grandma, kids are healthier. The deeper goal of Daily Bread is to be a catalyst for change and link to a growing, grassroots community that is moving the needle on diet. – Gregg Segal

Gregg Segal studied photography and film at California Institute of the Arts (BFA) dramatic writing at New York University (MFA) and education at the University of Southern California (MA). Segal’s photography has been recognized by American Photography, Communication Arts, PDN, Investigative Reporters and Editors, The New York Press Club, the Society of Publication Designers, and the Magnum Photography Awards. Segal’s portraiture and photo essays have been featured in Time, Newsweek, The Independent, Le Monde, Stern, Fortune, National Geographic Adventure and Wired, among others.

Gregg Segal, Our Daily Bread, Altaf Rabbal Dlove Bin Roni, 6, Gombak, Malaysia, photographed March 26, 2017, Photograph, Courtesy of the artist