Social Geometry: Overhead Views of Eating Cultures

SOCIAL GEOMETRY Overhead Views of Eating Cultures Worldwide Shot from approximately 5 meters above using a 3-meter monopod extended overhead, this long-term project documents how people organize themselves around food across cultures. This height is deliberate: high enough for true overhead perspective, yet accessible in intimate indoor spaces where drones cannot operate. The monopod technique allows me to work collaboratively rather than through surveillance. How do different cultures organize themselves around food? From markets to tables, from cooking to gathering—what patterns emerge when people come together to eat? The overhead view reveals what ground level misses: the architecture of abundance in markets, the social choreography of restaurant tables, the spatial logic of communal cooking, the geometry of a cup of coffee in solitude. This project spans multiple continents and continues to grow because the question remains: in an increasingly globalized world, how do local food cultures persist? How does the simple act of eating together create and maintain community? And what can the overhead view—this slight shift in perspective—reveal about patterns we live within but rarely see?