Food photos inspire Project MotorHouse and Royal Harbour Academy to create The Camera Eats First

RHA students in action

Instagram images of food and the growing trend of people take photos of their meals before they take a bite have inspired the name of the latest venture from Ramsgate’s Project MotorHouse – The Camera Eats First.

The charity’s CEO Janet Fielding said: “I don’t ever remember a time when food has been as controversial as it is now. Everybody has to eat food and everybody has an opinion about it, how we produce it, how we consume it.”

Over the next couple of months, Project MotorHouse will be working with Year 7 students at Royal Harbour Academy to improve their camera skills and explore some of the themes around food.

All the Year 7s will take part in introductory workshops with award winning photographer Tim Topple on how to use a Single Lens Reflex camera. During the May half term holiday, students will work in small groups with Tim, photographing allotments, greengrocers, cafés, foodbanks, Our Kitchen on the Isle of Thanet and market gardens and talking to local people about food.

Their work will feature on recipe cards for Our Kitchen, run by Summer Kitchen scheme creator Sharon Goodyer, and they will assist Ramsgate sculptor Gary Perkins in creating an art installation to feature their work. Gary was a senior lecturer at the prestigious Central St Martin’s and has exhibited his work all over the world.

The art installation will be at Silverland Studios in the Arches on Ramsgate Harbour for 10 days from June 11.