When I came across a pink cream puff covered in 100 and 1000s on Instagram, I knew this was something to investigate. The bright flash, capturing every particle of colour, the long doughnut leaving a deep, dark shadow behind it, and the Japanese newspaper it sat on. Who created this brilliant shot of an obscenely sweet cream puff that looked like it had been made for Barbie herself.
On closer look it was Martin Parr, and the photo was to highlight his newly released Phaidon book called Real Food. Now if you don’t know Martin Parr he’s been around for quite a while snapping mostly people and food, capturing the essence of human existence in quite a brutal, honest way. His renowned vivid, artistic imagary has earned him iconic status in the industry.
His latest book explores the notion of ‘we are what we eat‘, often portraying cheap eats and dated dishes.
His food shots are also very real, capturing the wackiness of certain food stuffs and exposing the food with harsh lighting giving it a personified vulnerability. Images are at times grotesque, yet beautiful in their simplicity and vivid colour.
The images are pretty magnificent, showing food from Britain to Japan, food he documented over 20 years, long before food photography became all the rage.
Here are some of the images taken from Instagram to showcase the bizarrely mesmerising food photos:
See more inside the book here.
(cover image by Phaidon)