Midwife/middle school science teacher | San Antonio, Texas | 3-person household (including dog) | First week after deciding to eat all local produce.
Mark Menjivar photo

Mark Menjivar

Bar tender | San Antonio, Texas | 1-person household | Goes to sleep at 8 a.m. and wakes up at 4 p.m. daily.
Mark Menjivar photo

Award-winning photographer and Baylor School of Social Work alumnus Mark Menjivar will bring his exhibit “You Are What You Eat” to the School of Social Work March 14 through April 29.

The exhibit is the centerpiece of the School’s open house from 5 to 7 p.m. March 16 at its new location at 811 Washington Ave. Diana Garland, dean of the school, and Waco city officials will speak at 5:30 p.m.

“You Are What You Eat” is a series of portraits made by photographing the interiors of refrigerators — “as is” — across the United States. Twenty of the series’ 36 images will be displayed for six weeks in the school’s two-story, second-floor main lobby. The exhibit is open to the public.

“It is a beautiful facility,” Menjivar said, “and I would do anything for the school. It was during my education there that I developed my desire to focus on social issues.”

The exhibit represents his ongoing concern about hunger and food issues. “My hope is that we will think deeply about how we care — how we care for our bodies, how we care for others, and how we care for the land,” he said.

Menjivar, a licensed social worker, runs an arts and advocacy project in partnership with Legal Aid, working with homeless youths in San Antonio.

“I will always be a social worker, but I am choosing to work through the arts now,” he said.

Garland said she’s excited about featuring the exhibit.

“It is thrilling for us to have Mark’s work as the centerpiece of our open house for the Baylor and Waco communities,” she said. “He represents how a social work education can be foundational for nontraditional as well as traditional careers that focus on bringing expression to social justice issues. We’re very proud of him.”

The exhibit has won several awards including Director’s Choice in CENTER’s Project competition and Photolucida’s Critical Mass Top 50. It has been covered by National Public Radio and Smithsonian Magazine, among other major publications.

“These are portraits of the rich and the poor,” Menjivar said. “Vegetarians, Republicans, members of the National Rifle Association, those left out, the under-appreciated, former soldiers in Hitler’s SS, dreamers and many more. We never know the full story of one’s life.”

The “You Are What You Eat” exhibit follows the debut of Menjivar’s newest series at the Waco Art Center, through March. Titled “Salvador,” the project documents the rural community of Valle Nuevo in El Salvador and the ongoing work of World Hunger Relief Inc. in that country.

The school of social work moved from its Speight Avenue Plaza location on the Baylor campus to downtown in mid-December and welcomed its students in January for spring semester classes. With its faculty, staff and baccalaureate and graduate students, almost 300 people are now using the renovated, three-story structure that previously housed the Wells Fargo bank. The school now is closer to many of the more than 100 nonprofit agencies and entities with which it already has long-standing relationships.

The open house event begins at 5 p.m. in the second floor atria of the school, with brief remarks and introductions beginning at 5:30 p.m. Tours of the facility and refreshments will be available.

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