Food Glorious Food. - secondary research

For my secondary research I created a food based mood board and researched some food photographers and artists, both historical and contemporary. I did this for a couple of reasons, the first being so I could understand exactly what food photography is, how it's supposed to look and which techniques work best for this type of photography. Another reason for completing this research was to gain inspiration for my own work. Creating a mood board allowed me to see a lot of different images and group together photographs of food which I liked and found interesting and this was able of offer me a visual aid when gaining inspiration. In addition to this, looking into the work of photographers allowed me to see exactly what others looked for within food photography, what successful food photographers specialised in, what techniques they used and also their motivation to create the photographs which they did. Through this research I realised that food photography is a very broad subject which can span from abstract creations which are made completely using food to more practical images which show food in a matter of fact way which can be beautiful yet also practical for advertising purposes or something of a similar nature.

Mood board:

This is the mood board which I created using a range of different images which I found online. When creating this mood board I used a google image search in order to help me find images of food which I found interesting and appealing. The image search I used was “creative food photography” as I think it is very interesting the amount of things which can be done with food and how food can be made into a work of art which can then be captured and documented through photography. I will use this mood board in order to help inspire my photography throughout this project as I hope to capture some unique, interesting and creative photographs including food.

Photographer research:

Michael Michaels:

Michael Michaels is a London based contemporary food photographer. He states on his website that he has had a love for food since around the age of 12, if not younger and would always be keen to help out his mum in the kitchen. He later discovered a love for technology and photography was included within this. He then chose to combine his two passions of food and photography and did this when he studied photography at Sailsbury. Michaels has worked alongside a lot of major brands such as Uncle Bens, Heinz, Walls, Dolmio, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Harrods as well as many more.

He has a large selection of his work uploaded on his website which is categorised into the groups Sweet, Savoury, Motion and published food photography. Each of these categories is divided into its own section of the web page and is home to a selection of Michales’ work within this category. The published food photography section displays a selection of the photographs which Michaels has taken for brands which have then gone on to be published and it includes photographs taken by Michaels which have then been made into advertisements for brands such as Morrisons and Hovis. Upon looking through the selection of his work on his website I found that I like the ‘Sweet’ category the most. I like this section the most as this is the portion of the website which I feel most drawn to as I love the vibrant colours which are present within this section. The bright colours of the likes of the pink sorbet, along with other images really caught my eye and I find this very important when viewing photographs.

Michaels generally used a shallow depth of field throughout the majority of his photographs. This means that the foreground or main focal point is pin sharp whereas the background of the photograph drops out of focus. This means that the attention is solely focused on the main focus point of the photograph and the attention of the viewer is not diverted to other aspects of the photograph making the photograph very effective. In addition to this, Michaels also looks to use a lot of natural lighting throughout his photography. This is shown by the bright yet soft quality of the lighting which may be difficult to replicate with artificial lighting. The lighting within these photographs is very natural and the photographs are shown as you would see them if you were to be looking at them in person in a real life situation which suggests the use of natural light over artificial lighting. In addition to this the shadows within these photographs are very soft meaning they are present yet not distracting from the subject matter within the photographs, this also suggests natural lighting as artificial lighting can be harsher than daylight causing harsher and more distracting shadows. I like the lighting which is used within Michales’ photography as is I crisp and clear and it also makes the colours within the photographs pop making them more vibrant and eye catching making the photograph very effective.
Here is an example of some of Michaels' work.

Artist research:

Giuseppe Arcimboldo:

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was an Italian artist born in Milan in 1527. Arcimboldo had various jobs throughout his career as an artist including being commissioned to design stained glass windows, drawing the cartoon for a large tapestry of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, which still hangs in the Como Cathedral to this day. In addition to this Arcimboldo also became the court portraitist to Ferdinand I at the Habsburg court in Vienna then later to Maximilian II and his son Rudolf II at the court in Prague. He also painted portraits of human heads which were made up of different food types. Arcimboldo’s conventional work such as that or religious subjects has been somewhat overlooked however his more interesting paintings such as the portraits made up from food have remained intriguing to people now. The portraits which Arcimboldo created are quite strange and somewhat surreal which has made art critics over the year question if the art in question was “whimsical” or if it was the result of an artist who was not mentally stable at the time of painting. This said, once this question has been raised, research was done into the art and the time in which this art was being produced and a lot of scholars who have studied this art are of the opinion that this art style is simply catering for the artist taste of the renaissance period as this included a fascination with riddles, puzzles and the bizarre. With this theory, this means that Arcimboldo was clever in his art and thought thoroughly about his paintings in order to paint a portrait with a bizarre twist which was the fruit and vegetables which he used to compose the portraits. Today, his paintings can be found in various museums such as the Louvre in Paris and Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum.

This is one of Arcimboldo's portraits and this has been titled "The Admiral". This painting shows a person, presumably the Admiral in which the portrait was painted of looking off to the left of the image giving a profile view of the face. This portrait was painted onto a black background which makes the portrait itself stand out well as light colours have been used for the subject of the painting. This is different to other usual portraits as it has been made up entirely with the use of fish and other things which can be found in the sea such as sea shells. If you look closely at this portrait you will see that every single aspect of it has been made up using fish, the eye of the person in the portrait doubles as the eye from one of the fish, the mouth of the person doubles as the mouth from another fish, the nose and chin have been made up also using fish.  fish have also been used in order to create the structure of the portrait and forming the shape of the head, neck and shoulders. I feel that this is a very unique and interesting way in which to combine both food and portrait art in one image. a modern day equivalent of this would be to gather various food types and lay them out in a specific pattern in order to then photograph. 

This is another of Arcimboldo's paintings and it is a little more subtle than the last as this painting does not, at a first glance look directly like the portrait of someone and instead looks like an arrangement of different fruits and vegetables. This said however if you look a little closer at this image you can see that the way in which the food within this photograph is arranged shows a figure sat on the floor with their legs crossed looking over to the left hand side of the photograph. I like the way in which this painting has been portrayed as it is a less subtle portrait than some of Arcimboldo’s other work in which it is made very clear that the end goal is that the portrait is made from other objects, this image is more subtle and requires you to look a little closer at the image in order to be able to see the figure which it siting in the centre of the painting. This painting was titled “The Autumn 2” which I feel is a fitting name for this image as Autumnal colours such as browns, yellows and oranges are very dominant throughout this piece and the figure itself within this image is made up of quite Autumnal vegetables such as pumpkins with are heavily associated with the Autumn time.