I made characters out of groceries and created a story around them

Before shooting this series, I saw a documentary about how different groceries are made. Big factories with endless assembly lines and hundreds of machines handling the products from start to end. It was quite interesting to watch how the products change their appearance completely from start to finish. An idea was born to create alternative ways of making these same groceries. And when you add just a drop of humanity to it, I think that’s a story.

Groceries are food (really??). They have no persona (you sure??). How do you create a story around them that creates a character to these lifeless pieces of healthy little things? These were thoughts in my head when I opened my refrigerator when brainstorming themes for my upcoming project… so I picked corns, cucumbers, tomatoes etc. and started sketching.

My garage is full of pieces of wood and plastic. That’s my huge treasure chest when I’m starting to create all kinds of props. If I don’t have the exact piece, I planned on using, I still usually have something to replace it. Having this “box of tools” means I don’t have to think about buying materials to start creating.  That’s a big thing for me, especially if I suddenly have some free time or some instant inspiration that demands to be created.

Like my usual work (see more of Juhamatti’s work here), the props here are made of wood and plastic. They are by no means perfect or detailed, but they work well enough for me and my story. When I create a scene, I already know what I can in postprocessing, so I don’t have to worry too much about little details. This way, I keep the whole construction process efficient and don’t have to use more than a day for the entire process: props and scene creation to finished photo.

The whole process starts with sketches. I use the photoshop to draw the different ideas that are in my head so I can see if they work in “real life”. When the sketch is done, I start building the props and the scene. Construction is the part that takes most of the time. Then I shoot a couple of frames (3-5 photos) with different light setups. I usually use one flash with a beauty dish and a grid, so I have good control of the light. I then combine these differently-lit frames in photoshop and add the details that were too intricate in real life, or easier to create in post.

The name for this series came with the idea of gross ways making groceries…Groceries

Egg

Raisins

Ketchup

Babycarrots

Behind the scenes

swipe left and right to see the before and after of the photos

 

 

 

 

 

About the Author

Juhamatti Vahdersalo is an amateur photographer based in Finland. He likes to tell stories through his photographs and work. You can find out more about Juhamatti on his website, follow his work on Instagram and 500px, or reach out to him through Facebook

P.S. poor egg