Oliviero Toscani for Slow Food Presidia

Renowned Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani has just formed a new collaboration with Slow Food by turning his lens on 63 Slow Food Presidia from around the world. 63 shots are currently available on the web:

http://www.fondazioneslowfood.it/olivierotoscani/

There are over 400 Presidia in more than 60 countries around the world, amongst others from Sierra Leone, Romania, Italy and Brazil. Presidia are projects that support quality products at risk of extinction, protect unique regions and ecosystems, recover traditional processing methods, and safeguard native breeds and local plant varieties.

“We’re all different and there’s nothing strange about that,” Toscani told us. “Today’s problem, and the same goes for food, is that we’re afraid of diversity. It makes us insecure, and we prefer to be secure in our own mediocrity.” His sentiments were echoed by Carlo Petrini, founder and president of Slow Food: “Thirty years ago, nobody paid attention to food, but now we’ve gone too far, with cooking programs on every TV channel. Food can free us if it returns to being ‘our’ food, in all existing and imaginable ways, according to different cultures and preferences.”

The photographs are currently displayed in the Cibo e Libertà (“food and freedom”) exhibition, at the Petra winery in Suvereto, in the province of Livorno, Tuscany.