Food Photography
I am not a food photographer. In September 2014 I produced and photographed a fashion shoot with the theme, "The Perfect Date." This shoot was a spin from a shoot I had done a year prior entitled, "The Perfect Picnic." Both shoots incorporated fashion and incorporated food. The food was just one small accessory to the shoots. Both shoots were fun. Other than that, when food has made an appearance in my work it is been brief.
In 2013 I filmed a photographed a Pop-Up Restaurant that took place a few blocks up from my studio. There I met Chefs Jeremy Kean and Philip Kruta. Together they own "Whisk," a pop based restaurant. One of my photographs of Jeremy from the night of "Deposit," the first pop I filmed, was featured on Guy Fiery's show, "Guy's Grocery Games." Later that year, in December I went to their small pop-up restaurant in the North End of Boston. The food was incredible. I tried a few things I hadn't before, such as black squid ink pasta and a sort of beet dish. Prior to that night I had never liked beets. How they prepared it changed my perception of beets. I was hooked on their food. Shortly after they closed their pop-up in the North End, they opened up another restaurant that I had never tried.
This past Friday night I went to their latest pop-up Restaurant, "Whisk at Fazenda." Located in Jamaica Plain, within a cafe, with plans to expand, this pop-up has been the culmination of their careers, as how I see it. I met with my friend and visual artist colleague Chris Davis. Chris is a super talented designer that I met when I attended the Art Institute of Boston for a short period of time. Recently Chris produced a new logo for me. I was in the middle of a visual rebranding and he was responsible for the new logo that is being attached to everything that gets mailed out, featured, shot, whatever I can put it on basically. I invited him to join me.
I must admit, the following photos were shot at the table with my iPhone 6. In addition, that was the first meal I had physically eaten in 4 days. Yes, that is right, first bites of food eaten in 4 days. Before you call me crazy, let me quickly explain. On Sunday I had watched a doc, "Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead." The gist of it, he was sick, over weight, almost dead. He embarked on a 60 day course of drinking just juice. He lost the equivalent of a small human being, in terms of weight, stopped taking drugs that were prescribed to him, and became healthy. His work inspired people that he met along the way. As I watched, I said, wow, what a way to become healthier and lose weight. I figured, Ill give that a try. So I did. I set a goal and began working on it. I knew that I was scheduled to eat dinner on Friday night, so I figured that would be the only meal I would have and until then and after then I would keep a strict regiment of fruits and vegetables.
By the time I sat down to dinner I was starving. My brain knew food was about to be introduced into the body, well prepared fine dinning. I was beyond ecstatic. I chose the pescetarian option. It was a no meat but fish 5 course dinner. It was incredible. I am going to spare you the boring, wanna-be food critic breakdown of each dish and allow you to enjoy the photos.
NOTE: I am traveling to the Pacific Northwest at the end of February. I will be producing some travel photography work while we navigate around a few different cities in that region. In addition to the travel photography, I am going to be starting a personal project. When I return I will be sharing the details along with some of the images from the personal project. I am very excited for this project and I hope that you enjoy reading the photographs as much as I will be making them.
Food Photography: Featured on The Food Network
It occurred to me sometime between adding the photographs to my website and right now, nearly a week later, that in addition to hosting the photographs for my site, I should put them on the blog. Total space cadet move right there. After deciding to post them, I had another flatulent brain moment, "dummy, why don't you see if you posted the film from last year, too? Well. Here I am. Posting both the photographs and the film. WTF am I talking about? Well, a quick note. Last April I filmed "Deposit." (Below) "Deposit" was not intended to be a film. I have been working on a feature doc for the last year and some change. I made a point to coordinate with the dude in charge of "Deposit" A Pop Up Restaurant in Holyoke, MA. For two nights. Two singular nights combined to form a partial weekend, a Friday and a Saturday at the beginning of April 2013, "Deposit" was a dinning experience that fused art and food. Western Mass does not have such a venue in which food and art are wedded together like a hipster boiler maker, a lethal drink my friend Rory has been concocting. Truth. Western Mass has some places where you can get a large slice of pizza, some re-heated burritos, a few fine meals, and occasionally something semi creative. Overall, this area lacks what was bestowed upon us.
Two Chefs, Jeremy Kean and Philip Kruta, Co-Owners and Founders of Whisk, (pop up restaurant and awesomeness) and their team, artfully and skillfully produced what was nothing short of incredible. During the two nights, people such as foodies, artists, hipsters, the politicians, the creatives, the business owners, the friends of friends, all sat and partook in an experience of art and dinning. Each guest was an element of the final product. With or without knowledge, they were part of a social practice of dinning as art. While the literal form of art, paintings by The Banner Queen, Amy Johnquest and another Chap, name escapes me at the moment, hung in the vast openness of a former bank/ Tables fill the void of what used to be lines of pre-economic melt down Bank of America cogs. The space really is a diamond in the rough. A restaurant belongs there. So if on the off chance you are the new owner of the building, do your best to fill it with a restaurant.
As I said, I was there to film the event. I was there to capture the ambiance and produce some images and video for my film, (untitled and undiscussed at the moment.) Half way through the first night, it dawned on me that what I was capturing was a lot larger than my first thought. It needed to be its own film. So, I told Brendan. The genius behind the idea of bringing a Pop Up Restaurant to Holyoke. He agreed. The film was born. I shot stills and video the first night. Stills and video the second night and conducted interviews as well. It took me a bit of time editing it together as I am no Ken Burns, though I did meet him and hand him one of my photographs a short time prior to "Deposit."
What you will see is a film that captures the splendor that was "Deposit."
Moving forward a few months. I received an email in late 2013. It was a request for the photo of Jeremy (seen below) to be used on The Food Network's show "Guy's Grocery Games." Of course Jeremy can use the photo! The show was to air on January 19th. I am happy to report that Jeremy won. It was so fun to watch Jeremy compete and win. I kept saying, "I know him, I know him! He just served us!" Well, maybe not so jovially, but he did just serve us a few weeks prior to the start of the show. As I said, these dudes have a pop up restaurant. Located in the North End of Boston, they are serving something that not even Whitey Bulger could whack. If you are in Boston, I suggest you look them up, you wont be let down with dissapointments...!
And yes, those are safety "deposit" boxes in the lower safe of the bank.. Awesome, I know right??? Well it was fitting as much as it was metaphorical.
This was among what was served at "Deposit."
