George Steinmetz Inspires Reflection on Planetary Health at Xposure 2025

Photo: Sharjah Government Media Bureau

At the International Photography Festival in Sharjah, well-known National Geographic photographer George Steinmetz amazed the audience with breathtaking pictures taken from both the sky and the ground. His talk, titled "Feed the Planet: A Photographic Journey to the World’s Food," gave people a rare chance to see how food is produced and consumed worldwide. The event took place at Aljada, Sharjah, during the 9th annual Xposure Photography Festival on Saturday.

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Through his stunning visuals, Steinmetz showed the massive scale of food production, revealing how much effort and resources go into feeding people across the planet. He took the audience on a visual journey, showing cattle and poultry farms in Brazil, fish farms in China, and dairy and crop farms in India. His pictures also included fishing boats in Mauritania, sugarcane farms in Costa Rica, camel dairy farms in the UAE, and cheese warehouses in Italy. The images captured the enormous amounts of food needed to sustain human life. Some of the most shocking photographs showed how livestock is treated in commercial farming—how they are fed, bred, and eventually slaughtered. These images left a deep impact on the audience, making them think about the hidden realities of food production.

Steinmetz’s talk wasn’t just about showing pictures; it was about making people think. He encouraged the audience to reflect on their daily choices and how they affect the planet’s health. His lens captured free-range cattle in Australia that are shipped to Indonesia for slaughter, goats transported from Somaliland to Mecca for Hajj, and the narrow farmland strips in Poland. He also highlighted government support given to cattle farmers in the Swiss Alps and showcased the unique Belgian Blue breed of beef cattle, which are so muscular that they can only give birth through surgery.

The presentation also focused on large-scale farming, showing coffee beans in Ethiopia, millets in India, and sunflowers in Arizona, USA. One of the most alarming parts of his talk was about deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, where trees are being cut down to create grazing land for cattle. The destruction of forests for agriculture is a major environmental concern, and his images made this problem clear.

Steinmetz shared that gaining access to farms for his photography was easier in middle-income countries than in developed nations. He recalled an experience where he was jailed in the U.S. for flying over a cattle farm after its owner complained. That incident made him realize that some food producers prefer to keep their operations hidden from the public eye. In contrast, he managed to photograph animal farms in China by building strong relationships and trust with the right people.

Currently, Steinmetz is working on a project about climate change and the global food supply. He primarily uses drones for his photography but mentioned that technology has changed the industry. In the 1990s, he started his aerial photography journey by flying a motorized paraglider over the Algerian Sahara. However, with drones becoming more common and affordable, he noted that anyone with a small budget can now take aerial photos, making the art less exclusive than before.

His talk at Xposure 2025 was a powerful reminder of how food production affects the environment. Through his storytelling and photography, Steinmetz made the audience think deeply about where their food comes from and how their choices shape the world.

Feb. 23, 2025 3:12 p.m. 275

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