This work depicts Chicago's urban agriculture movement in areas with limited access to healthy affordable food.
Approximately 384,000 Chicagoans live over 1 mile from the nearest supermarket, and have limited access to healthy affordable food in their neighborhoods. Well over 100,000 children live without access to healthy food.
Redlining, a prevalent real estate-investment practice in the U.S. from the 1930s to the 1970s, discouraged investment in minority and low income neighborhoods. This was compounded by deindustrialization and the resulting loss of jobs. Large areas in the South Side of Chicago remain to this date, under-developed and neglected.
The South Side has experienced a surge in urban farming and community gardening. I seek to photograph the intersection between neglect and self sufficency on Chicago's South Side.
This work was produced through a Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund Grant.
More images are available upon request.
Emily Schiffer Photography
Spontaneous. Intimate. Real. Fine art, editorial, and commercial photography by international award-winning photographer Emily Schiffer.