05 November 2010

Food for a Dollar: Inspirations

Shrimp-flavored ramen noodles
Early season organic blueberries form California
Potted meat food product
Organic basmati rice from Whole Foods

Cook-turned-photographer Jonathan Blaustein describes his Value of a Dollar Project: "I'm interested in the way photography is used to deceive...everywhere we see glamorized versions of what we eat. The photographs in this project attempt to strip back the artifice; to depict food items as they were sold (minus packaging), without styling, retouching, or artificial lighting. Each image represents a dollar's worth of food purchased from various markets in New Mexico. The subjects exist as equivalent amounts of commodity, and nothing more. The resulting images allow for a meditation on the power and seductive nature of the photographic medium itself."

Since being featured in the New York Times LENS blog in early October, it has gone viral with more than 600,000 hits in three weeks, so I am definitely behind on this one, having just seen it this morning. That being said, the project was too cool and visually compelling to pass up posting simply because I am a month late. The NYT article and Blaustein's page are linked below.

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