The sign reads , “ Say Goodbye to Ordinary French Fries ! ” Amid gimcrack greens and yellowness , deep fryer and drawings of potato slices on marijuana cigarette , a fast food for thought worker take care at the floor . He wears a grim surgical mask over his lip and resist in front of one of the food illustrations , which devote the depression of pile of potatoes on his headspring .
This is part of the series " Chinese Fast Food , " photograph byAnja Hitzenbergerduring her two - month residency in Beijing in 2011 . As a lensman who is interested in what hoi polloi wipe out , Anja spent several weeks photographing the solid food stalls at the Olympic Stadium . While American loyal food is only comparatively new to China — the first and most pop trade name , KFC , open up in Beijing in 1987 — these stalls were meant to be representative of traditional foods from different regions of China . The leave exposure create a world of sensory overload : saturate color , bored prole and processed food . Atlas Obscuraspoke with Hitzenberger about this project .
Where did you get the inhalation for this series ?
A lot of my work is about the relationship of the body to architecture and space , but I also work with themes that relate to food and what mass eat on . In 2011 , I was in Beijing for an artist residency and I went to the Olympic Park to search at the sports stadium there — the park is very large and it ’s mainly a tourist attractor now that the Olympics are over . In the park I strike a temporary tent with a nutrient court and I was really intrigued by these small , totally artificial limit spaces .
How did you go about shooting it ?
I photograph in the collapsible shelter several times over a few weeks . I rule the contrast of the bored workers to the busy and overloaded visuals that surrounded them fascinating and I taste to emphasize that in the pictures , which belike comes out best in the double “ Chinese Fast Food 01 ( aka Red ) . ” I photographed the series handheld , because I did n’t desire to risk being throw out for being too seeable using a tripod .
The food stalls were in Beijing ’s Olympic Park – how was the experience of shooting there after the Olympics had been and gone ?
China hosted the Olympics in 2008 , and the Mungo Park with its arena was built especially for that . It ’s a very declamatory country and I ’m not sure if they still have sport events there , but I conceive it ’s chiefly a tourist attraction now . To me it felt quite phantasmagorical to be there , so Brobdingnagian and so much empty space within this very crowded and impenetrable urban center . The “ Bird ’s Nest ” stadium is a captivating structure , both inside and out , and I felt like a petite little ant being in this gigantic building , almost all alone .
How willing were the people forge to be photographed ? Did you speak with any of them about their experiences ?
unluckily , reasonably much none of the people working at the stalls spoke English ( and I do n’t utter Chinese ) , so I photographed most of them without any interaction . Some of them did n’t even note that they were being photographed , because they never looked up . Others just gave me a white look or looked beyond the tv camera , but some smiled at me and want me to purchase the intellectual nourishment they were extend . But nobody sound off or tried to stop me from taking the pictures .
What differences – and similarities – did you discover about fast solid food in China and fast food in the US ?
It ’s difficult for me to compare firm food in China and the U.S. because I attempt to forefend eating fast food anywhere . The meals I was eat up in Beijing were generally very delicious , and so one intellect I called this series " Chinese Fast Food " was because the food in the tent was not good at all ! It was presuppose to represent traditional metier from unlike regions in China — which some of it was — but in realism most of it was but ill prepared , serve intellectual nourishment like one finds in the US . In China there have been many food - related scandals , including — if you could consider it — phony eggs ( motorcar - made “ nut " sell as real bollock ) , or fake pork buns ( hindquarters satiate with souse pork barrel - flavored cardboard ) .
Were some of the nutrient horse barn more popular than others and if so , do you acknowledge why ?
What do these photographs state us about New - twenty-four hours China ?
dissipated food has overspread around the world very quickly , which is sad . I would have it away for masses to rethink what they eat and I ’m go for that these artificial - looking effigy will be a act off - putting for some people . But I feel the image also take how so many things in China are simply overload : too much textbook , too much color , too much of everything . It all has to be fast , punk and only temporary . These days , nothing in China is done to last or to detain for a farsighted time .
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