Project Goal: To expore the interaction between Color and Culture. Specifically, how do certain colors convey information that is not explicitly contained in the picture? How does color convey mood, emotion, how does it affect your "take" on the picture?

Inspirations/Influences: I can't think of their names but there are two major influences here: One is a fellow who made a lot of whimsical food pictures (ala Lipstick Sandwich) and another who painted items and made monochrome prints from B&W negatives. The appeal of the first is obvious; his pictures are "fun". The appeal of the second was the level of abstraction that painting an object gives. Painting removes most surface qualities, or changes them: texture, reflection, color, pattern, the appearance of hardness or softness. As such it allows you to concentrate on shape, geometry, space, color, and other less concrete qualities. In other words, there is not an easy way to classify objects, you have to think about them. A painted Coka-Cola can fits into a category based on it's logo more than the physical aspects of the can. The painted coke can requires more inspection to determine it's role in the picture.

Techniques: Almost everything was spray-painted in a blue, yellow or neutral color. Important elements of the picture were painted with a higher saturated color. I discovered a lot of things about painting while doing this. Cheap paint is bad. Try to paint 24 hours before shooting. Prime smooth surfaces like metal or glass before applying real paint. Try to decide what objects will be painted what color in advance. You don't need to paint insides or bottoms, but sometimes it helps! Take off your watch and glasses.

How these pictures relate to the topic: I guess you could stretch it and say that any color picture relates back to culture since we draw so many conclusions based on color, etc. But specifically, I wanted to explore how color changes our perceptions of food. I tried to use the same techniques that a magazine or cookbook photographer might use. Fresh food, matching colors, careful layouts, simple design elements (less distracting), etc. In a way I play a trick on the viewer because they think they know what they are getting. In the end the color does it in: is it even possible to consider a blue sausage appealing? to the objects in the picture. Thus they thought of the toast as a sponge, etc. In a way this is a manner of coping with the hideousness implied by wrongly colored food.