Potatoes, salmon and chocolate cake are not the first items one would
associate with an idillic sunset.

But for one skilled photographer they are the perfect ingredients for
the ideal shot.

For full story and pictures:

Aptly named ‘Foodscapes’ these uber real images are the creation of
Kent-based photographer Carl Warner.

The commercial photographer has spent the last few years developing a
body of work making landscapes out of food.

Made entirely from vegetables, meat, dairy and fish produce these
scenes range from a broccoli forest to a mushroom field. look so real,
you have to glance twice before realising just what they are.

“Foodscapes started out as personal project where I wanted to
highlight the idea of implied design within the natural world, the
qualities within organic forms,” said the 44-year-old.

“For example, the structure of a human lung is similar to that of a
tree, yet as we take in oxygen and create carbon dioxide it does the
opposite.

“For me, the forms, shapes, patterns and structures of everything from
DNA molecules to fingerprints, from tornados to spiral galaxies all
point to a much bigger picture.”

The scenes are photographed in layers from foreground to background
and sky as the process is very time consuming and so the food quickly
wilts under the lights.

Each element is then put together in post production to achieve the
final image.

Carl spends a lot of time planning each image before shooting in order
to choose the best ingredients to replicate larger scale shapes and
forms within nature, so he spends a lot of time staring at vegetables
in supermarkets which makes him seem a little odd!

However, finding the right shaped broccoli to use for a tree is an all
important task.

“I begin by drawing a very conventional landscape using classic
compositional techniques as I need to fool the viewer into thinking it
is a real scene at first glance,” he says.

“It is the realisation of what the real ingredients are that brings a
smile, and for me that’s the best part.

“Although I’m very hands on with my work, I do use model makers and
food stylists to help me create the sets.

“Normally I set them up on an 8 ft wide by 4 ft deep table top, though
the foreground is only about 2 ft across and the background 8 ft
across due to the wide angled lens.”

Carl began his career by going to art college with a view to becoming
an illustrator as he had a talent for drawing yet quickly discovered
that his ideas and creative eye was better suited to photography as a
faster and more exciting medium in which to work.

After leaving college he set up as a still life photographer working
for design and advertising agencies, but always had a fondness for
landscape photography which he pursued as personal projects.

“I’ve always enjoyed the discipline of working in the studio, and the
spontaneity of working outdoors in natural light,as you never know
what you’re going to get,” he says.

“With my Foodscapes I can now put together the knowledge of natural
light with the control of recreating it in the studio in order to
bring out the colours and textures as well as the beauty of a scene”

Carl’s inspiration for Foodscapes was still-life photographer Tessa
Traeger.

“I think my earliest influence was the work of Tessa Traeger who had
made two dimensional pictures using food,” he recalls.

“I wanted to make a less painterly, more realistic three dimensional
images that mimicked the real world as I liked the way that smaller
aspects of nature resembled larger ones.

“Apart from that Willy Wonka and the Wizard of Oz play a huge role!”

But it is his eye-catching of collection have been commissioned by
many advertising agencies throughout Europe to produce these for
clients in the food industry.

“Last year Sainsburys commissioned two images here in the UK. Sacla
who make pasta sauces did three for European advertising and Negroni
who are salami and parma ham producers in Italy,” says Carl.

“I think the smoked salmon sea has been one of the most successful
items in terms of it’s closeness to the real thing.

“My favourite scene has to be the broccoli forest as it was the first
one that went from my head to my sketch book to the finished image as
a smooth process of realisation, it also raised the bar on how
realistic I could make them look.”

Carl is hoping to produce a book of his work in the not-too-distant
future which he hopes will be enjoyed by food lovers both young and old.

Words by Jack Fletcher
Pictures by Carl Warner / Barcroft Media

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