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If there’s one thing food photography has given us, it’s the chance to enjoy a gastronomic experience that goes beyond taste: so when you’re not able to appease the palate, your eyes can help satisfy your appetite. Fine Dining Lovers introduces you to some of the most interesting photographers in the field today, those who manage to interpret dishes and taste experiences in a personal way, a way that is unexpected and never banal.
Starting with Bob Noto, the photographer and expert gourmand. With the aim of immortalizing the dishes of some of the world’s most famous chefs, he opts to capture them not in a photographer’s studio, but in the restaurant itself. Every shot is taken right where the food is prepared and served, within 20 minutes of its completion; any retouching happens afterwards. To better understand the artist, we asked the artist ten “tasty” questions, and you’ll find the resulting portrait here, together with a photo gallery of several of his shots. Eclectic and unconventional, Bob Noto also oversaw the creative direction of the book Tribulli, which was a limited edition tribute to the career of Ferran Adrià and the way he’s revolutionised cuisine from the kitchens of elBulli. To celebrate the publication of the book, Bob Noto shared with us some of the images he captured for the closing of elBulli: you’ll find the complete gallery here, along with a few of the 100 testimonials given by some of Adrià’s friends and colleagues.
For the Canadian Liz Wolfe, instead, food seems to have one dominant colour: pink. But if you think hers is a world of cuteness and comfort, think again. As these pictures show, all that sugary décor and use of pastel actually highlights the raw and sometimes disturbing elements of her work. The result? A bittersweet style that we urge you to explore and enjoy.
Now we take you from pastel pink to black, without anything in between: the Italian photographer Silvia Badalotti’s vision of food is much darker, and she chooses unusual and rather grim settings for her work. Hers is a very original means of interpreting food, as demonstrated here in this splendid collection of images, driven by the desire to break beyond fixed ideas. Instead of the “classic” way of depicting food, well-lighted against white backgrounds, her sets are dim, almost dark. Whatever you think about her images, they won’t leave you indifferent.
And from Brazil, we present Sergio Coimbra, who has just published a book of his best work from his Studio SC in Sao Paolo. His concept is new, starting from his working space, which welcomes both photographers and chefs in the aim of creating a constant creative exchange and contamination. Having just won the Festival International de la Photographie Culinaire in Paris, Coimbra has depicted some of the world’s most famous chefs and dishes: from the three Michelin-starred Massimo Bottura, who is featured in the gallery along with his “iconic” foie gras croccantino, to Gualtiero Marchesi, to Brazil’s Alex Atala.
And to conclude our survey of photographers, here are two who aren’t exclusively committed to food. First, Alessandra Tinozzi, whose project On the pillow made world-famous chefs literally lie down for her, as she photographed them while resting on pillows. And then there’s the great Yann-Arthus Bertrand, whose Bestiaux project gave a sensitive look at the delicate and almost symbiotic relationship between humans and the animals they breed. Be sure not to miss either one.
