MidwifeThat cartoon cliché of a man standing transfixed before an open refrigerator? That’s Mark Menjivar—except he’s aiming a camera. For a project Menjivar calls “Refrigerators,” the former social worker photographs the fridges of people from all walks of life. He captions them obliquely: The midwife, for example, recently vowed to eat only local produce. The street advertiser “lives on $432” a month. The bartender “goes to sleep at 8 a.m. and wakes up at 4 p.m.” (leaving little time to eat leftover takeout). Touring exhibits of the actual-size photos, Menjivar says, spark discussion of “not only our personal relationship to food but the larger society’s relationship to food systems." This refrigerator (above) in San Antonio, Texas, is filled by a midwife and her husband, a science teacher, to feed a family of four.

RELATED: "Could Eating Like Our Ancestors Make Us Healthier?"

Find this month's story from the National Geographic Future of Food series at natgeofood.com.

Photograph by Mark Menjivar

By Their Fridges Ye Shall Know Them

For a project Mark Menjivar calls "Refrigerators," the social worker turned photographer makes as-is images of the fridges of people from all walks of life.

December 24, 2014