Tomatoes are botanically classified as fruit – more precisely, berries, but are mostly treated as vegetables. Over the centuries, tomatoes as ‘vegetable,’ have evolved from disregard ¹ to omnipresent. In 2022, an estimated 186.1 million tonnes of tomatoes were produced worldwide, the highest of any fruit produced globally. ²

“Humanity’s Favourite Fruit?” explores the diversity of tastes found in tomatoes through alternative photography – cyanotype printing (and toning).How can we visualise something we can not see? Considering the diverse growing environments and variety of tomatoes, the print series, arranged in the form of a collage, visualises the taste of eight different tomatoes through the composition of the images, the colours and the textures.

Each print was created through a four-step process:

1. Photographing the tomatoes to create the basis for the prints.
2. Creating the digital negatives from the photographs.
3. Overlaying the digital negatives onto paper coated with a cyanotype solution and exposing it to UVA light to create cyanotype prints.
4. And lastly, toning the cyanotype prints.

The tomatoes are not only the subject matter of the project but are also the material used in the printing process. The cyanotype prints are toned with the tomato stalks, turning the images from blue to yellow and in parts, a beige/brown tone.

¹ Encyclopedia Britannica (2024, November). tomato. https://www.britannica.com/plant/tomato

² Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. FAOSTAT. Crops and livestock products. https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL