Play With Your Food
Studio Photography (J331J) Final Portfolio Artist Statement
As a child, dining at a restaurant with me often made for an embarrassing outing. If there was ever food leftover on my plate, my fork became a paintbrush, my plate a canvas, and the restaurant my art studio. I saw my mashed up meal remnants as a Van Gogh-level masterpiece. Rightfully so, my parents didn’t always share my artistic vision.
Food has always been more than fuel for me. With Play With Your Food, I lean into that instinct to experiment, to make a mess, to treat the plate like a canvas. Food is one of the most primal ways we connect with the world. From ancient hunter-gatherer tendencies to modern-day rituals of celebration and comfort, my goal with this project is to encourage people to see food as a source of fun and enrichment, rather than just sustenance. Food is essential for life, but play is, too — its effect on human well-being is often underestimated.
Visually, my work on this project is inspired by London-based fashion photographer Campbell Addy, whose vibrant use of color and proximity to his subjects informed my own stylistic choices. I also used Pinterest to collect ideas for playful or unexpected approaches to food photography.
To realize this project to the fullest potential during a hectic final semester, I employed time management and organizational skills. I held over 10 photoshoots across multiple weeks. Office Depot, Dollar Tree, and Goodwill were my loyal friends when it came to backdrops and props.
I shot some photos in my own apartment by renting a mobile lighting kit and setting up a makeshift studio (for example, I took the alphabet tomato soup photo at home). On one occasion, I clinked down to my apartment complex’s pool for a midday shoot with a tote bag full of glasses, tequila, limes, and other props. I headed to the Moody College of Communication rental studio several times, bringing bags stuffed full of more food, props, and camera equipment with me. I called on friends, neighbors, and strangers to be my models.
Regardless of the various environments and situations for the shoots, to me, every photo shares a sense of playfulness. I often instructed models to pose with food in childish or “camp-y” ways, or styled food in an intriguing or unnatural manner. I baked cookies, layered cakes, and stacked PB&Js in ways that reminded me of how I viewed food in my childhood.
For some images, I tried to capture a daily-life kind of feel (as seen in the images of a model riding a bike with a basket full of produce, or another model carrying a birthday cake.) Other images were captured in a studio, but I still tried to bring in a sense of life by incorporating a model’s hand or setting a scene that looks like a human had just been there. Whether there was a model involved or not, I pushed myself out of my comfort zone to explore different ways to style food and pose models.
To add variety in visual content, I explored different scenes to incorporate food in my images. Some photos had an eccentric or uncanny feeling to them, which felt uncomfortable as I strayed from my normal photographic style. However, my hope is that the diversity in content reflects the fact that everyone’s relationships and memories associated with food are unique and varied. Whether it’s cocktails or cookies, Play With Your Food is an attempt to push the boundaries of how people perceive food and celebrate the concept of dining and drinking.
