Shawn Alff: Men are often accused of being more superficial when it comes to their sexual appetites. Have you noticed any general differences in the sexes when it comes to the aesthetic presentation of food versus how the food tastes?
Tiberio Simone: No, I don’t think so. It is more about where the person is from. For example, I’ve noticed that Americans are more concerned with how the food looks. I feel like back in Italy people say, 'Yeah, it looks good, but the taste has more value.'
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SA: After reading
La Figa, or going to one of your live demonstrations, do people leave more sexually aroused or hungry?
TS: Some people will say, 'Wow, I’m hungry now.' Some will say, 'I’m kind of horny.' Others will say, 'Well, I’m both.' But this is more of a sensual book than a sexual book. It doesn’t really give any advice on sex or how to give an orgasm. It is more about how to live life and appreciating natural beauty. It is more about food, love, and life.
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SA: When shooting male nudes, photographers often rely on an abundance of shadows to highlight the musculature of the body. When lighting the female form, smooth, clean surfaces seem preferred. Similarly, are there any differences in the ways a photographer lights food versus the human body that presented some challenges?
Matt Freedman: There is. I am really interested in creative lighting. I don’t really come from a food photography background so I was just trying to make these the most visually interesting photos possible… Tiberio really wanted his food art to be highlighted and very visible. Sometimes I would set up the lighting in a way that his design was very dark or some of it was completely blacked out. We had endless, heated discussions about it. To me some images were obviously the strongest, but Tiberio was concerned that the picture was not showing the food in the way that it should.
TS: There was one photo in particular, the black male with the sugar dots, that we debated for weeks.
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SA: When it came to models and food, you seemed to feature examples of both that came in all shapes and sizes. However, there did seem to be a strong preference for freshly washed and glistening fruits that were free of bruises or spots in the same way all of the models' bodies had flawless glistening skin free of bruises, dirt, disfiguring scars, distracting tattoos, or excessive body hair. Is it fair to say that humans are just as attracted to fruit or vegetables with flawless exteriors, as they are attracted to humans with unblemished skin?
TS: Yeah, I think so, but at the same time I like bananas with bruises because they are sweeter. So, yes, looks are important for first impressions. For me, I like everybody. If someone has a bruise or pimple, it does not bother me. If the person is really cool I don’t care what they look like. But with first impressions, I think appearance is important. When I buy food, I want to buy food that is not bruised because I want it to last longer. With people, I don’t go browsing for a person with like a rash all over her face. At the same time, I can’t stand when people put on tons of makeup. I think that is disgusting. When I kiss a person, I want to taste them, not their makeup.
MF: For the photographs I think it would be distracting to have a lot of bruises or stray moles or pimples. It would just interrupt the composition and flow. So yes, I definitely cleaned up minor stuff without being judgmental about people needing to be perfect. It just didn’t work in the photo.
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SA: Do you have any plans to do a series of photos with people dressed up in outfits juxtaposed with food dressed up in recipes?
MF: One of the things we want to do is more elaborate settings. A lot of the photos in the book have plain studio backgrounds. There are a few that are more staged in unique environments. That could be one direction, but we could go in other directions as well.
TS: Recently we’ve been doing a lot of shows. Right now we usually use one ingredient per body, like coffee or potatoes. What I want to do now is take all these ingredients and place them on the body. Before these body paintings had one color, but now I can do the body in all these different colors and textures and create a beautiful collage of food and different shapes. I could put a whole recipe on the body.
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SA: Eggs are the closest thing to meat used in the photos. What was the rational behind not doing a photo shoot with raw meat?
TS: To be honest with you, I wish I didn’t use the eggs either. One reason is because the raw movement is huge. This would be a great book for the raw movement. Another reason we didn’t use meat is because it doesn’t look very sexy on the body. I wanted to do one piece like the Statue of David, but when we put the strips on the body, the body started cooking the meat right away. To be honest, I think rare meat on people looks like shit. It doesn’t stay on very well and it changes color.
MF: I don’t think there is any sensuality to it. I don't think it would be good to see meat on the body, but I think the eggs work.
TS: The eggs were on that particular body because she was pregnant. Every photo in this book has a meaning. For example, there is another pregnant woman with peas, which plays on the idea of 'a pea in a pod.' It was not just, 'Oh, this food looks good with that skin.' The sugar dots on the black male played on the idea of him being a sugar daddy and the Japanese woman is covered in seaweed because seaweed is traditionally from Japan. For a future shoot I want to do olive oil on an Italian woman.
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SA: What do you think of naked sushi?
TS: I think it was a brilliant idea, but I doubt we will ever do it for La Figa, maybe because it has already been done. It is interesting because, you think, 'Oh, I’m going to eat food from a woman’s body.' But the pieces are not directly on the skin. There is always a leaf or something between the food and the body. It is really just a nice luxury, an extravagance without any sensuality.
Check out more work by Tiberio Simone and Matt Freedman, and get your own copy of La Figa at lafigaproject.com.
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