My Culture (a series)

 I am made up of several different nationalities such as Mexican, Hungarian, Polish, and a few others.  I have been to Hungary twice in my life and that is where most of my relatives are born and raised.  When I first heard about this assignment I wished I could've used the photos I took of my family while in Hungary.  They have such a strong sense of culture there, it is amazing.  As I thought more and more about what I should photograph that represents my family's culture I realized that we don't have nearly any cultural traditions.  There's always the occasional Hungarian meal or a dinner at our favorite German restaurant, but there's no particular god we pray to and there's definitely no strict dress code we have that reflects our culture.  All of these factors put me at a loss as to what to shoot.  I knew that food is a huge part of any kind of family traditions we have so I decided to focus on that aspect.  In the long run I decided to shoot my three brothers from my dad's side of the family and their eating habits.  You could say that the way my dad is raising my brothers and I is the "typical American" way.  Sometimes he'll cook dinner but in most cases we dine out.  Fast food is key to so many mouths to feed, it's cheap, easy, and tasty!  Because of this way of bringing us up, we all have quite the sweet tooth.  The kitchen is filled with name brand sweets.  I feel really strongly about this aspect of my American culture.  I believe it is as valid as anyone else's more "traditional" culture.
  I decided to put everything but my brothers and any food item in grayscale.  I did this so that the focus wouldn't be on the rather colorful background that my dad's house seems to have.  The focus is strictly on the children and their junk food of choice.  All of these photographs are not posed.  I informed my brothers that I would be taking their pictures but I needed them to just ignore the camera.  This was successful in each picture except for the one of Cody in the kitchen next to several boxes of cereal.  Despite the obviousness of his camera shyness in this photograph, I still liked the message it sent because it is the most colorful box of cereal in that kitchen and he chose it.  Advertisement towards younger kids at it's finest.  Each food item my brothers snacked on were ones of their choice, I had no influence among them.
  My brothers are J.J. (8 years old), Cody (5 years old), and Dylan (1 year old).  I feel like their ages are significant with what they are eating.  They have no desire to pick a healthy choice like an apple because who can reject a cherry slurpee?