Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Tasty: Classic cuisine from John Dominis photography

The art and craft of photographing food is now a large part of our visual landscape - in magazines, on billboards and subway posters, web sites and elsewhere, it is easy to imagine that creative food photography has existed since the dawn of the medium. In fact, for a long time, the vast majority of pictures of food was a kind of... blah. Appetizers, main dishes, desserts and drinks - a cake, a roast beef, a salad, a martini - were arranged directly on a table or a kitchen counter, exactly as the kitchen would be found in real life.

Fifty years ago, however, in his January 31, 1964, Edition, LIFE magazine launched its famous (among lovers of food, anyway) series "Gala dinner" and helped to re-imagine what photography of food could be. "Dinners are festive," wrote the editors of the life of foods that would be presented in the series, and still easy to cook. Because no party is created entirely in the kitchen, it will offer stories - along with recipes, tips on how to prepare, store efficiently, serve with style. A full menu is assigned to every meal."

Throughout the long and popular career of the monthly series, some of the most celebrated photographers of life contributed to large dinners, with a name in particular, John Dominis, appearing again and again, in Edition after Edition. Throughout his career, Dominis uniformly excellent work through issues very disparate listed as one of the most versatile talents of life - and your food photos without a doubt contributed to that reputation. As LIFE.com wrote in a Dominis photographer Spotlight:

[John Dominis] traveled the world, working in Southeast Asia and the Southwest United States, Africa and Europe, Mexico, and New York. He covered six Olympic Games, including the 1968 Summer Games in the city of Mexico, where he made his famous painting of American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the podium, his gloved fists raised in a black power salute. He was one of the first photographers of life report of Viet Nam. It covered Woodstock. He created what many consider the definitive photographic essays on icons such as Frank Sinatra and Steve McQueen. He photographed big cats (Lions, leopards, cheetahs) in Africa and photographed the three brothers Kennedy, John, Robert and Edward, by separate, early in their careers.

His photograph of 1965 Mickey Mantle by throwing his helmet in disgust after a terrible at-bat is one of the most eloquent pictures ever of a great athlete in decline and also made some of the most memorable images of food in the pages of the life of grace.

LIFE.com presented here, a photography exhibition of food de Dominis - photos that were published of course man, in a sense, as he loved to cook. (His father was owner of a chef and restaurant in Los Angeles).

"We have decided to shoot large plans that look good to eat the food," Dominis wrote about big dinner pictures, "instead of the popular style [when], adorned with flowers and candles.

Dominis also find creative ways to make dishes especially attractive. For example, photo of a rolled roast, photographed in a container of roast is cut by half (slide above #5), seems to have been pulled moments before an oven. But cigarette smoking, not a salty steam, drain the pot - smoke burned there, Dominis pointed out then, "to make it look delicious."
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