"As a person who communicates visually through photographs, it was most important for me to show the beauty in food that was on it's way to being wasted," Eliazarov told Business Insider.
Rather than taking pictures of the food in the dumpsters, Eliazarov rescues it, sets it up like a meal, and photographs it with a 17th century style.
I began to study paintings of food and feasting in art, specially those from the 17th century masters," Eliazarov said. "The way [the] food in these paintings were elevated to objects of art really spoke to me and made sense for this series and subject matter. To take food headed for the trash and make it art.
Eliazarov would search in dumpsters outside of restaurants and markets all over New York City, where she currently resides.
For example, the produce and flowers pictured below were rescued from curbside trash outside of Union Market in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
The amount of good food being tossed is shocking," she said. "Trash bags filled with bread line the streets of New York every night.
Pictured below is immature egg yolks that were thrown out, but could have been used for a dish. For example, during WastED — a month long event geared towards raising awareness of food waste — Chef Dan Barber used immature egg yolks in his dishes. They were shaved over a stew of kale ribs, pockmarked potatoes, and parsnips.
About 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted globally each year, and around 40% of that comes from restaurants.
Source: Business Insider
