Having traveled to Centralia, Kansas in the early 1950s on an assignment to photograph a young girl who had won a baking contest, Magnum Photographer Erich Hartmann developed a friendship with the girl’s father, a wheat farmer. Hartmann wrote that he grew “aware of the dignity which touches the many whose work makes bread available and of the meaning which bread can have for us all.”
Hartmann’s ensuing long-term project depicts the multitude of human efforts required to put bread on the table – from clearing the land, sowing and harvesting to feeding millions. Beginning in the early 1950s, Hartmann added material to this lyrical and deeply humanist series: farm workers in Israel, reapers in Nebraska, a miller in rural France, a soup kitchen, a Parisian bakery, a Bedouin at the grain market in Beersheba, a school canteen.

The exhibition is on view at the Carl-Schurz-Haus, the German-American institute in Freiburg from 7 December to 10 February 2024.

Download the flyer here: Hartmann_Our Daily Bread_Flyer