Men & Food

Because food is vital for our planet's future. Because it is important to document and witness these traditional diets. And because Matthieu Paley does stunning photographic work. Help 180°C, an independant and young company to fund the publishing of the book Men&Food (both in English and French)!

(cover not finalysed)

MEN & FOOD

Text and photos by Matthieu Paley - Introduction by Ann Gibbons

Ancestral food

Far beyond the hunt for the perfect picture, what has taken Matthieu Paley across the globe is a keenness for his fellow humans and his willingness to show their true face. By his own admission, what drives him is being able to share and unveil the intimacy of the people he has met on his way.

He has found cooking to be the perfect gateway into such precious intimacy, through the daily routine of preparing food. Washing, cutting, transforming, churning, salting, freezing, cooking… Kitchens have been, are and will always be a stage set for the story of our lives and civilizations. Food is handpicked, cooked and eaten there. Food is paramount, it says so much about who we are. No food, no life!

Through his months-long journey, Matthieu Paley has sought to illustrate the tight connection between men and their environment, their search for sometime elusive food, and what is found on their plates.

Whether it be in the Arctic, in a savannah, a primary forest, up high mountains, near a tropical sea, or along the Mediterranean, he joined self-sufficient communities that are heavily dependent on their environment and still eat like their ancestors did.

From the exclusively carnivorous Inuit diet to the Hadza hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, to the people of Crete, to nomads from the Sulu Sea in Malaysia and their fish and manioc diet, this unusual photo report raises the question of global food standardization and reminds us of the urgency to preserve cultural food specificities.

To help fund the Men & Food book published by Thermostat 6 (bilingual edition, in English and French), a young independent publishing house that publishes Revue 180°C and promotes an open, sincere, generous approach to cuisine and food.

Thermostat 6 is a young, fully independent publishing house. The funds raised here will cover a portion of the costs involved in publishing this book (mock-up, translation, reprographics, materials and printing).

Support an exceptional book project that will lead readers on an adventure from Greenland to Tanzania via Crete and Pakistan. Through this wonderful work of over 200 pages, Matthieu Paley will introduce you to seven fascinating photo reports on the last remaining primitive diets. Discover how the environment has shaped humans - and their diet - over the centuries.

With your help, we plan to release the book in October 2015 at the opening of Matthieu Paley's exhibition at the Museum of Natural History in Paris!

This project involves the entire 180°C team (Thermostat 6 publishing house) and photographer Matthieu Paley.

1 - Matthieu (the photographer...)

In 1999, after studying photography in New York City, Matthieu Paley moved to Northern Pakistan, in a valley bordered by the Himalaya, Karakorum, Hindukush and Pamir. He roamed across these remote areas for over four years. Passionate about these far-off mountainous regions located on the edge of Central Asia, he focused on the topic of isolation in geopolitically sensitive areas. His photo reports have led him all around the world, from Tajikistan to Bhutan, and from Mongolia to Nauru, the world’s smallest republic, in South Pacific.

Over the past decade, his long-term reports have been published in GEO, The National Geographic, Time, Vanity Fair, Le Figaro Magazine and Le Monde.

Since 2012, he has been one three French photographers contributing to National Geographic US. This year, he contributed to the “The Evolution of diet – We are what we eat” project, which sent him around the world (Crete, Tanzania, Bolivia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Greenland) to document different diets. His work will be exhibited at the 2015 photo festival of La Gacilly. It will also air on National Geographic Live on April 15, 2015.

His work is regularly exhibited in Hong Kong, Paris, Munich, and Istanbul, and his multimedia presentations have been projected in many festivals, such as the Perpignan Photojournalism festival, and the Banff Mountain Festival in Canada. 

He is also the 2014 recipient of the Paris National Museum of Natural History Photo Prize with his project “The last of the first”. This grant will allow him to go back to Tanzania in 2015 to broaden his knowledge of the Hadza people, the last hunter-gatherers of Africa. His work on the Hadza of Tanzania,

“The last of the first”, will be exhibited from October 2015 to March 2016 in the Museum

Gardens.

Website and blog: www.paleyphoto.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Paleyphoto

Instagram: instagram.com/paleyphoto

2 - 180°C and Thermostat 6 (the brave publishers...)

180°C is a collective, participative yet personal venture. Halfway between a magazine and a book, 180°C is the first culinary mook entirely dedicated to cooking and cooks.

Eric Fénot was inspired to create this mook and formed a team of nine founders who brought their experience and expertise to the table. They are what drives our publication. In spring 2014, eight keen new members joined our team to take this adventure to the next level.

No advertisers. Fully independent. 100% funded by our readers and the team.

All our efforts are directed towards making 180°C a high quality publication that remains affordable. We have designed this sincere, generous mook for refined, curious epicurean readers who love authenticity. Nothing is left to chance, from paper selection to image processing and even subject and contributor choice.

In 2015, we want to take our work to the next level and become a true publishing house that gets involved in "personal favourite" projects on cuisine and food - as always with the same high content and processing standards.

Men & Food is our first big "personal favourite"! Thanks to Matthieu's quality of work and the relationship we have built with him since 180°C started, we are setting out on this adventure together. Matthieu's photos have regularly appeared in our publication since its second edition but now we want to take the next step and create this book. 

Find out more about us:

• 180°C Facebook page
• 180°C Twitter account