GROW AGAIN

Art Direction
Photography
Graphic Design



Most of us buy the same groceries week after week, rarely questioning where they came from or what happens when we don't finish them. Living alone in London, that cycle became impossible to ignore. Most times I found that when life got busy, I would come back to find my vegetables forgotten at the back of a cupboard, already sprouting new life before they ever made it to a meal.

Grow Again is a film photography series and print campaign investigating what a more honest relationship with food could look like for the urban solo dweller. Set against rising grocery costs in the US and UK, the work asks: how might those living alone in major cities feed themselves more meaningfully, sustainably, and with less waste?

The project is grounded in an investigation of industrial agriculture, urban food systems, and the social history of community gardening. What began as a personal frustration became an inquiry into something larger: our collective detachment from food production, and what returns when we close that distance with community being at the center.

Shot on film, each vegetable is treated as a portrait subject rather than a still life object. Each vegetable is photographed as an individual, carrying its own story from store produce to regrowth.  





Portrait Series










Propagation Study







Print experiments on basil seed paper extend the work beyond just image. The prints allow the work to become physically a part of the growing process. 





Field Documentation: Earth Tenders



Earth Tenders is a Black-led organisation committed to strengthening local food systems and community health for the long-term.


 

© 2026 Ami Sumareh