Food processors
Behind the scenes of ‘Setting the Table’
What does it take to make a surreal series of landscape photos where food is the star? We really had no idea. When we started conceiving this issue’s cover story, a broad exploration of the food that defines western Mass, we were convinced that making the food into western Mass was a must. But figuring out how to pull that off was an open question.
For a helping hand, we turned to intrepid local food stylist Joy Howard, who had never done a project like this before, but was eager to figure it out. Her skillset is such that she has a “special technique” for popping popcorn for maximum fluff, so snowy corn was on the way—and by the way, had we considered using dark blue corn kernels to make a “driveway”? We had not!
Joy was full of ideas, and equally full of precision. For two days, in always-game university photographer John Solem’s basement studio, we played arts-and-crafts. The end results are served up in “Setting the Table.” Take a peek inside the kitchen to see how these food scenes were chopped, popped, and skewered together.
