Snoeck, 2012
ISBN 9783940953933

hardcover in slipcase
edition size 1,000 copies, numbered

Lebensmittel (Food or foodstuffs) is a limited edition large slip-cased volume produced for an exhibition touring Germany and Austria thru next year. Schmidt spent five years travelling around Europe photographing the production, processing, packaging and presentation of foodstuffs. Largely foregoing local references this is far from a celebration of life on the farm nor a particularly harsh document of cruelty to animals. Instead he methodically portrays the processing of food from agricultural workers, animal breeding, fish farms, large bakeries, packaged sausage products, and landscapes mauled by the food industries—Schmidt takes us to an intermediate realm that he scrutinizes with his painfully realistic gaze.