The expression ‘don’t play with your food’ simply doesn’t apply to London-based photographer Carl Warner. The talented artist takes common food items and transforms them into stunning works of art known as Foodscapes.
Pasta hills, thyme trees, mozzarella clouds, salami rivers and red onion balloons. These are just a few of the intricate details found in the mouth-watering food worlds created for European advertising and food industry campaigns.
“I use very classical composition techniques which are used in painting. This helps the viewer to believe that it is a real scene as they feel comfortable in the traditional aspects of landscape composition,” explains Warner.
Each Foodscape is painstakingly built over several days, from the planning stages to building the 3D food landscape to the final stage of digital retouching. The scenes are photographed in layers from foreground to background and sky, with the elements then put together in post-production to achieve the final dazzling 3D image.
“I could shoot the images in one shot but the food in the foreground would have perished by the time you have finished the background,” explains Warner. The artist has created images depicting whimsical broccoli or celery forests, cheese villages, ice cream wonderlands and salami worlds that are so delectable that you want to just dive in and start enjoying the feast.
Unfortunately, the food is no longer edible after being glued, pinned and fiddled with under the hot lights during the photography process, but the leftovers are shared with the crew or sent to a homeless shelter.
“I do not consider my work to be a waste of food as I am creating something which brings a bit of joy to the world and is used to encourage healthy eating. The fact that it is not eaten does not mean it hasn't been put to good use,” he explains.
Carl Warner has a new book coming out from Abrams this year - Food Landscapes.
Visit: www.carlwarner.com
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written by Dave , November 01, 2010