"You're So Healthy" Photo Series

"What's your diet?"... one of the most commonly asked follow up questions when I tell anyone that I'm on my distance runner on my college's cross country and track teams. This question has always surprised me. No, our coaches don't make us follow a diet. Do yours?

And yet, this is a fair question from an outsider, given how prevalent complicated relationships with food is for athletes, especially female athletes.

This quarter I've been taking a studio lighting class and one of our most recent assignments was to create a series of still life images based around a theme. I'm also in a typography class and I'd had the idea of combining letterforms and studio lighting for a while, so it all came together in this series of photos based around an athlete's relationship with food. This series was fun to make! Who doesn't like putting together a spaghetti alphabet for a homework assignment? It also made me reflect on how my relationship with fuel has fluctuated throughout my life and athletic career. Being in a sport that has such a reputation for disordered eating has definitely shaped a lot of my perspective as not only an athlete, but a human. Having been in the distance running world for so much of my life, I've watched how this culture has shaped myself and the people around me, and the fight for a healthy mindset around food and fuel is one I will always be passionate about.

Through this photo series, I hope to bring an air of both light fun around food and cutting commentary on the food pictured. The phrases are some that I've gotten often, and find can cut much deeper and stay with athletes far more than expected. "You're so healthy" and "what's your diet" are comments that on the surface may seem complimentary (and often are) but signal a deeper culture and message of pressure around body image and fueling. I'm no expert on the subject, but I love when I get to create a project around a subject I'm passionate about. Please enjoy my work below! I hope it touches you.