APPLES TO IPHONES?

Ali Penko
Oct 19, 2024
2 min read

Updated: Apr 30

EVERYONE HAS A DIFFERENT RELATIONSHIP TO FOOD AND FOOD PRODUCTION.

This single frame by Bob St-Cyr opens volumes of questions we collectively should be asking.

This image depicts a scene of an older man, bent over, picking fruit off the ground. In the background, a younger woman stands with her back to the man. She has what appears to be a phone in her hand, and she is taking a photo.

The first thing that I saw was the man, immediately, it made me think about travel restrictions during the last few years, and migrant workers, unable to travel to Canada and pick our crops for us. There were many news stories on how entire crops were left to rot in the fields because no one was willing to pick them. Is this a statement on the work ethic of different generations?

Another viewer may look at this scene and feel frustration with the woman with the phone. This is an all too familiar sight.

People everywhere, walking around like zombies with phones in front of their faces, living life through phone screens and social media filters.

Maybe she is an Internet influencer promoting her experience visiting an orchard or someone who has worked in this orchard and is making a video teaching people where apples come from.

Are these two people related to each other or are they strangers? Is this scene real or staged? Are there other people just out of the frame or are these two alone? Who picked the full basket of apples in the foreground? How large is this farm? Where are these apples destined? Are they going to a local market or a supermarket on the other side of the world? Was this photo documenting apple-harvesting methods in a particular place in the world or is it a local vacation snapshot?

It is very possible that the real story to this photograph has no special explanation and is a basic and banal scene. But does that really matter to us as viewers if we read into it? Why did the photographer choose to preserve and share this moment in time?

What’s the message in the act of presenting images without context?

Interpreting the meaning of an image is really just guessing. What makes one person feel passionately about any one piece of art, a song, a poem, or a photograph is personal and depends on individual life experiences and unique points of view. Photographs have the power to tell stories but, without context, interpretations will vary.

What do you see in this image? What societal message can it press you to re-think for yourself?

Like what you see here?