Exploring food and the home through photography – New exhibition at Museum of the Home

In an exciting first for the Awards, a selection of images from this year’s World Food Photography Awards sponsored by Tenderstem® Bimi® Broccolini will be exhibited at the Museum of the Home in London.

The Museum of the Home is a free museum in the 18th-century Grade I-listed former almshouses on Kingsland Road in Hoxton.

The exhibition will feature selected works exploring the connections between food and home - from food bringing people together for healing and joy, families eating in an everyday context to photo-journalistic images that show the reality of political issues affecting food and the home.

Ahead of the exhibition, which opens on 3rd June, we spoke to Sonia Solicari, Director of Museum of the Home.

Sonia Solicari, Director of Museum of the Home. Credit: Em Fitzgerald

As Director of the Museum of the Home, how do you see the role of food in shaping our experiences of home?

Food is a powerful part of our sensory experience of home. When asked about domestic memories, many of our visitors mention the smell of cooking, the comfort of family meals and the joy of festivals and feast days.

Food is also at the heart of identity and belonging. Recipes - passed down through generations or travelling with us when we move – can keep alive our links to other times and places.

The struggle to put food on the table is also an issue that shapes the domestic experience. Home is part of a wider eco-system and the story of our food supply chains is also the story of our homes.

The Museum of the Home tells stories of domestic life through the ages. How has food played a part in those stories? Do you think our relationship with food at home has evolved?

From the 1600s, which is where the Museum’s narrative begins, there’s a long and consistent history of eating together. There’s something fundamental and timeless about sitting round a table with good food and conversation. The period room sets in our renowned Rooms Through Time have always presented spaces of dwelling and human connection – a hall in 1630, parlours in the 18th and 19th century, multi-purpose living spaces in the 1910s.

The significance of food really shaped our latest rooms, which opened to the public in July 2024, and were expanded to include kitchens and dining rooms based on the real stories and co-curatorial guidance of the communities they represent.

Museum of the Home focuses on the urban experience, so there has always been that tension between producer and consumer. This has arguably increased as our cities have expanded over the centuries and we have become further removed from the growing and harvesting. In terms of eating practices in the UK, there were major changes in the twentieth century that saw food increasingly consumed away from the dining/kitchen table – more eating on the go and on our laps in front of the TV. Also, working patterns have meant that breakfast, lunch and dinner have meant different things to different people at different times.

The Lunch Rush by James Ward Breen. Shortlisted, Food for the Family supported by The Felix Project, 2025.

From still-life paintings to modern Instagram food culture, images of food have been prolific through the ages. What do you think photography adds to our understanding of home life and food rituals?

Viewed in aggregate, photography can tell us something about society’s values. A rise in Instagram tablescape photography, for example, might suggest a return to more considered, slower paced dining practices and the status attached to curating a food experience at home.

The accessibility of photography also means that there is more opportunity to capture the everyday – and sometimes even the chaos of home – like the aftermath of a toddler’s lunch or the end of a dinner party. It enables us to communicate a life well lived and also the complexities of family life.

Before the digital age, photography was very much saved for special moments which is why, in the collection at the Museum, we have so many images from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that capture celebratory food rituals like birthdays and festivals. The birthday cake is still probably one of the most common food rituals– baked with love and involving candles, chanting and wish making. The ‘money shot’ of blowing with eyes shut is still so popular, allowing us to preserve memories and mark the passing of time.

The still life has such a long history and is entangled with international trade, colonialism and the value of goods. The enduring popularity of the still life – either in painting or photography – is now also in tune with the mindfulness movement - focusing on the texture and shape of the food we eat and the beauty of natural produce. Such images can help us make sense of the world around us and to think about food and where it comes from.

Home is such a personal concept, different for everyone. How do you think food photography can tell universal stories about home while also celebrating cultural diversity?

Many of the images in the World Food Photography Awards depict the human emotions around food, from a quiet contemplative moment dining alone to the rowdy joy of eating in a group. Food photography can bring into focus the experiences that unite us.

The history of food and domestic cooking is also the history of migration impacting the design and layout of our homes and the rhythm of domestic life.

Diaspora experience is one of the strongest strands of collecting and programming at the Museum. Our vision is to reveal and rethink the ways we live in order to live better together – food is a powerful lens.

Tbilisi -The Secret Behind the Dishes is Love by Audrey Eve Beauchamp. Shortlisted, Food for the Family supported by The Felix Project, 2025.

If you could add a capture of one food-related moment from your own home life to this exhibition, what would it be and why?

The moment I mastered gluten free ravioli and had them all lined up in perfect rows on a red gingham tablecloth on my kitchen table - ready to cook or freeze. As the parent of a Coeliac and living in a gluten free household, food has taken on a particular meaning for us. The thing my daughter most missed when she was diagnosed was my Italian nonna’s cooking, so it felt important to hone that skill and capture the moment. It highlights the social impact of food intolerances and allergies, the challenges of food preparation and how important it can be to be able to eat together and share food safely.

Photography has the power to capture moments of daily life and food photography in particular can evoke memory, culture and emotion. What excites you most about bringing the World Food Photography Awards exhibition to the Museum of the Home?

At the Museum we mainly tell the story of home through our famous room sets. Room sets are evocative ways to engage visitors with the meaning of home, yet they represent just one of many ways we can bring these stories to life.

The World Food Photography Awards exhibition allows us to explore, in even greater detail, the human experience of home and home life. It’s also exciting to feature such a diverse range of work from photographers at different stages of their careers. We love working with artists to explore the idea of home through a contemporary lens, creating a rich dialogue with the stories and settings of our historic rooms.

Food has always been a way for people to connect - within families, across generations and between cultures. How do you hope visitors will engage with this exhibition and reflect on their own experiences?

For me, the exhibition evokes a range of emotions, as we look at the people as well as the food. The images show the beauty of food moments and also a bit of the messiness of life. We hope visitors will leave the exhibition thinking differently about the world around them and might even feel inspired to pick up a camera and capture their own experiences of food.

The exhibition at Museum of the Home runs from 3rd June - 7th September. Find out more here.

The Museum of the Home is a free museum in the 18th-century Grade I-listed former almshouses on Kingsland Road in Hoxton, London. Credit: Wright & Wright/Hufton + Crow