We are ready to reveal the winners of this year’s SAFN Anthropology Day photo contest!
The weighty decision was reached by a panel made up of SAFN officers, including Amanda Green, Jennifer Jo Thompson, Shannon Caplan, Noha Fikry, and me. I want to thank the committee for their work and their patience. Our criteria this year were the same as last year. Photos were judged for
the ethnographic nature of the pictures, overall.
the contribution of the photo as insight into foodways.
the extent to which the photos help us see the work and lives of people in food.
the overall composition, originality, etc.
The photos submitted this year were outstanding and the decisions were difficult. We are grateful for everyone who submitted photos and impressed by the talent, skill, and insights of SAFN anthropologists.
This year differed from previous years in that most of the submissions were made up of a series of photos, accompanied by captions and, often an explanatory text. Rather than post all of them in one long blog posting, we will post the top 3 winners over the next few days.
Note that the photos below have been sized to fit this page. In most cases, if you click on the photo, you can see a larger version.
Our overall winner this year is Antti Leppänen, from the Centre for East Asian Studies, University of Turku, Finland. Leppänen’s photos draw from fieldwork with neighborhood shopkeepers in South Korea as well artisanal food producers. Our judges were unanimous in finding these photos to be impressive ethnographically, while also showing foodways and the lives of people involved with food. They are also quite interesting as photographs! Congratulations, Antti Leppänen!
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.At a restaurant named “Mokpo”, which is the owner’s home place in southwestern South Korea. From the right the owner’s older sister, owner’s son behind the pole, owner’s friend, and the owner. March 25,1999, Seoul. (c) Antti Leppänen
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Food offerings of the shamanistic ritual (kut in Korean) held on the occasion of the Spring Conference of the Korean Society for Cultural Anthropology, May 28, 1999, titled “Anthropology of the Korean War”. The ritual was held to alleviate the spirits of those who died in the war. (c) Antti Leppänen
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.A butcher’s shop keeper is sorting and cutting intestines in front of his shop. A wallpaper and flooring shop keeper from across the street looks on. Seoul, South Korea, Oct 27, 1999. (c) Antti Leppänen
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Neighborhood grandmothers at a neighborhood grocery store assisting the shopkeeper (in red vest) in cleaning vegetables for sale. Seoul, Dec 3, 1999. (c) Antti Leppänen
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The son of a restaurateur woman leaving for a meal delivery. Seoul, South Korea, June 12, 1999. (c) Antti Leppänen
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.A man passing by a street restaurant tries to sell radish greens (siregi) to the restaurateur woman, who refuses the offer. Busan, South Korea, Dec 30, 2006. (c) Antti Leppänen
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.A keeper of a rice cake manufacturing shop watching television in his shop. (A panorama photo consisting of four photographs.) Seoul, Nov 15, 2010. (c) Antti Leppänen
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.During a busy season before the Lunar New Year (Seol in Korean). A rice cake variety called garaetteok is being manufactured: the long bar-shaped cakes will be dried and sliced to be sold for a specific soup eaten during Seol. Ansan, South Korea, Jan 18, 2011. (c) Antti Leppänen
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The keeper of a rice cake shop washing rice with a drill before leaving it to soak overnight to be processed the next morning. Seoul, South Korea, Jan 21, 2011. (c) Antti Leppänen
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Members of an alumni group of the Training Institute of the national association of rice cake manufacturers toasting with makgeolli rice wine after a promotion event in Seoul. Feb 27, 2011, Seoul, South Korea. (c) Antti Leppänen
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The keeper of a rice cake shop and grain mill (right) inspecting the quality of mugwort (Artemisia princeps) brought by a customer for processing. Seoul, May 26.2011. (c) Antti Leppänen
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.A couple (1st and 3rd from left) getting instruction from an experienced manufacturer couple (2nd and 4th from left) before their first busy season of the Lunar August 15 Chuseok festival as keepers of a rice cake manufacturing shop. The kind of rice cake, songpyeon, that they are being instructed in, sells in large quantities during Chuseok. Siheung, South Korea, Aug 7, 2011. (c) Antti Leppänen
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The keeper of a rice cake shop and her son preparing mugwort (Artemisia princeps) for boiling and preservation to be used as side ingredient for rice cakes. Ansan, South Korea, May 13, 2012. (c) Antti Leppänen
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Instruction at the Training Institute of the national association of rice cake manufacturers. Participants in the “Instructors’ Program” are experienced shopkeepers. Seoul, May 14, 2012. (c) Antti Leppänen
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.A rice cake manufacturer giving form to a rice cake at the Training Institute of the national association of rice cake manufacturers. I often use this photo to illustrate the idea of “hand taste”, the notion of individual, embodied skill of making a tasty product as well as the heavy physicality of the labor of rice cake making, as shown by the appearance of the hands. May 21, 2012. (c) Antti Leppänen
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.A batch of injeolmi rice cake made of glutinous rice and mugwort (Artimesia princeps) being packaged for the customer (to the left) into small plastic bags to be consumed as “meal substitute” by the customer’s husband. Seoul, South Korea, May 30, 2015 (c) Antti Leppänen
