The Tweezer Times

By Greg Bertolini

(For a better formatted version of this post, visit http://www.theinvisiblestylist.com/. I apologize for the technical glitches I’ve had this past year and until today. We’re launching new blog software with the new version of Foodesigns.com, due out late February.)

With Steve Jobs’ announcement of the new Apple ipad, we could be on the verge of a new way of conducting business…

The ipad will change the business of photography, styling, writing and publishing. Up until now, the electronic tablets have been more of a novelty for the gadget inclined. If Apple is able to push the ipad as they have the ipod, the world of the printed image and book-catalog publishing will be forever changed. The ipod changed how music is sold, distributed, marketed, and even how it is recorded (musicians now record their songs in their own home recording studios and no “hard copy” such as a disc is needed). The same could happen with the printed word and photographs. There may be BIG changes for still photographers. Do we think that people, viewing the ipad with its high-resolution color screen and capacity for playing moving images, will continue to be happy viewing a still or static image? I see that in the near future still/print photography may become a small player. Think about it: want to look up a recipe? You open up an electronic cookbook or subscribe to a food magazine on your ipad. In front of you on the screen is the recipe. Hit a button and a lovely voice reads you the recipe at a speed that allows you to prepare the dish. An image of the dish appears: the camera moves around the dish, giving you a 360 degree view. Need help understanding a food handling technique? Press a button and up comes a video that shows you how that technique is done. Want more information? Press an icon and a mini documentary begins that shares where the ingredients for the recipe come from and how they are harvested. Hear the chef explain the recipe or technique, listen as the dish sizzles on the stove, hear the liquids being poured, and the clinking sounds of the kitchen preparation. Or go shopping for some new clothing through a catalog; stroll through an exotic island paradise while local music plays in the background. A model enters the scene, turns, moves, bends. The viewer not only gets to see the clothing, but also experience how it moves and drapes in different conditions. What will happen to the standard printed catalog verses the electronic catalog? No mailing or printing fees for the company–the largest part of a catalog’s expense. Plus being able to instantly change the e-catalog if the products style or color changes or sells out. Why view a product from a single angle, when you can entice the viewer with movement and sound? Simple tools for 360 degree product viewing already are in use, but in the near future when we set up a fashion, product, or food photo shoot, how important will the background or location be if it can move and interact with the product?

I find this all exciting, but it also makes me nervous. There are lots of questions that we need to ask ourselves, and new industry standards will need to be invented. Who will lead, who will follow, and who will fade away? Can still photography compete or complement the interactive or liquid image? Will printers, who are already being squeezed in a tight market, disappear? Will ‘hot-lights’ replace strobes in the studio? Will food stylists also have to be hand models because techniques can be filmed live? Will the standard photo shoot now include sound technicians, a lighting crew, and a producer and director? How do you dress a set, make-up a model, prop clothing, or style food if the camera will pan around, over and even under the product? (I think we need to study the film industry for this). And will the standard still advertising/catalog photography studios be replaced by video production companies? What will happen to our fees? The web is notorious for its low fees, but the ipad is not just the web. It is also a magazine, a book and a catalog. How do we use our businesses to cross all these platforms? And if more skills and larger crews are needed, will the cost of producing an electronic advertisement, article, brochure or book go up? Will clients expect a ‘one-man-band’: someone who can shoot, style, compose sound, and even appear ‘on camera’. Or will their costs-saving in mailing and printing be off-set by the added expense of production? Is the ’standard’ once-a-month, 12 magazines with 12 covers and 12 feature stories per year gone? With electronic publications, publishers can add new articles every day. Companies could up-date catalogs and add merchandise instantly (putting an end to the standard spring-summer-fall-winter catalog format). Does this mean more work for us in the future? What about us independents and small businesses? Will the work go in-house because ‘instant’ turn-around times will be required?

 I have lots of questions, as I know many of you do. I invite all of you, as professionals, to add, remark and discuss together, where we think our industries are going, what were doing about these changes, and the lessons we learn.

“…the times, they are a-changing.”  –Bob Dylan

This is reprinted from a past issue of The Tweezer Times™ from a few years ago…but we can never remind ourselves enough that recharging our creative batteries is really important!

The scenarios are similar. Here you are again, a frozen pizza or other homogenized fare in the middle of your workspace. You eyeball it, and it doesn’t respond. Or your client insists on showing their product the exact same way as they have for fifteen years, otherwise “our customers won’t recognize us.” Or even worse, you’re handed a wonderful magazine, cookbook, or film job—and you freeze. The freedom is almost too much; where do you start?

How can we keep our appetite for discovery keen? Feed our imaginations so we can allow ourselves to see wonderful possibilities in something unformed, ordinary, or even ugly? Battle the stress of deadlines, tight budgets, and unrealistic client expectations?

Creativity exists within everyone. It is the bread-and-butter of what we do as stylists, yet often we suppress it by our inner voice of judgment or feel we must express it upon command. Michael Ray, a Stanford professor who teaches a course on creativity, believes there are five qualities that define it: intuition, will, joy, strength, and compassion. To stimulate those qualities, it’s necessary to have faith in your openness to see and do new things, free yourself from your inner censor, carefully observe the setting, and ask important questions. He and others agree that creativity is not a moment of epiphany that produces a brilliant idea. It is a way of life.

Stocking Your Toolbox

Over the years, the most truly creative styling professionals we’ve talked to agree that being prepared for a job sets the stage for creativity. As a character in Madeline L’Engle’s novel A Wrinkle In Time says, “We can’t take any credit for our talents…it’s how we use them that counts.” By knowing your stuff—cooking technique, food science, specifics about a job, making lists, reading the recipes or knowing the product, shopping well and within the client’s budget—then you can clear your mind and open it to inspiration.

Horror and science fiction writer Stephen King recently wrote a marvelous book about the craft of writing. He cites an old popular movie, A Raisin in the Sun, as an example of a grounding moment in the creative process. A character in the movie cries out: “I want to fly! I want to touch the sun!” to which his wife replies, “First eat your eggs.” What a nice, commonplace analogy for laying the groundwork for creativity. King also devotes a chapter to the concept of filling your psychological toolbox with basic skills. If you haven’t learned the elements of your craft, then the artful part can’t be fully developed.

Another aspect of this is communication. When a job is booked, the first step is talking with everyone involved. Be a team player: invite yourself to pre-production meetings (at no charge, if necessary), make yourself available to the prop stylist, and educate the photographer about the issues you face in the kitchen. If you act like a key player in the process, trust and confidence follows and art will bloom.

The Spirit of Creativity

Maureen McKeon, a highly successful food stylist in Melbourne, Australia, presented a pyramid for working toward creative outcomes at a seminar on visual culinary artistry. Her pyramid base was devoted to dreaming—being expansive in thought about the world of creative options. The next step was design—narrowing the choices to the ones that are realistic and controllable. Step three was to decide—choose two or three of your best ideas and be ready to implement them. And the tip of the pyramid was to do—execute your best idea. We need to allow creative thought to seep into our thinking, and then take the process one step at a time.

She also spoke about the goals we strive for when in the studio, beyond creativity. We always need to remind ourselves who our audience or target is for the image. Is it reality or fantasy? Are we conveying information or a message? Can we achieve a visual hook that will draw the viewer in for a closer look? Is there approachability and appetite/sensory appeal? Can we use surprise or humor? Keeping these questions in mind can help drive the choices we make in our creative dreaming.

The current issue of Australian Vogue has a black-and-white ad for Rolex watches on the back cover. The image features Helmut Newton [Editor’s note: Helmut Newton died recently] and his wife June (known professionally as Alice Springs)—both notable European fashion photographers. The tagline on the ad is for perpetual spirit: “It’s not just what they see that surprises, but how differently they see it.” The same can be said for all of us—we each interpret projects in different ways, but a balance is struck when all the issues, goals, and personalities involved weigh in and evaluate the direction of the shoot. But independent visions can reach beyond the expected and give a view of a subject that may surprise and delight.

The Art of Composition

Composing or plating food is just arranging the parts so that a unified, harmonious whole is created. This can be done skillfully and with technical consistency, but it’s creativity and point of view that bring style. Personal preferences, regional, and ethnic associations will also bring a unique approach to presentation. Following trends may be a guide at times, but generally is a futile way to fuel creativity. Just because a look or style is “hot” doesn’t mean it will work for all applications. So strive to do the unexpected, and do not sacrifice good taste to appearance. The more complicated the plate composition, the stronger the sense will be that the food has been over-handled. Beauty can lie in minimalism—the freshest, seasonal food presented simply. And as always, beauty still lies in the eye of the beholder.

One of my favorite food photographers, an art director in a previous life, used to surprise me sometimes when I brought a styled plate to the set. He would spin the plate 180 degrees, despite my protests about what I had designated as “camera front.” Nearly without fail the camera’s view of the food was much more interesting and natural than what I had planned.

Inspiration and Child’s Play

Here are some tips for fostering creativity—there are many books on the subject, but the following suggestions can be part of daily life, as long as you allow yourself to observe and absorb.

1. Enjoy other creative pastimes; indulge passions for textiles, needlework, painting, or drawing. Go to museums, galleries, or exhibitions of other arts.
2. Keep a clip file of inspirational photos, food or otherwise—and attach a note that reminds you WHY it inspires you.
3. Read magazines, cookbooks, and other periodicals about food, culture, art, interior design, architecture. The whole world can offer inspiration.
4. Visit markets—ethnic, farmer’s, greenhouses, small specialty businesses. Learn about new produce, herbs, ingredients. Learn more about authentic cuisines.
5. Eat out and travel when you can—be curious, ask questions, experiment.
6. Cultivate relationships with chefs, cooks, writers, other stylists and artists, gardeners. Be willing to adapt other people’s ideas or visions of the world to your own work.
7. Be a kid again—rediscover the wonder of learning about new things. I ran across an article about a new exhibit at the Crayola Factory in Easton, Pennsylvania. You can go on a tour to learn how crayons are made, work in the Wax Works gallery creating your own art with melted crayons, and visit a hands-on gallery of folk art. And you can draw with markers on a 10-foot-high curved wall of tempered glass—enjoy the guilty thrill and not get into trouble! It’s kids’ play at its best, another place to discover the importance of creativity, to see things in a new way (to learn more, visit www.crayola.com).

Above all, always maintain a high level of integrity—to yourself, your clients, and your work. True creativity flows from focus and hard work.

This was written for us by Lisa Cherkasky, a terrific food stylist in Washington, D.C. (see her bio below)...

Money isn’t everything, at least not with every assignment. When I rate the desirability of any client, creative latitude and stylist input are at the top of the list. Staying sane is more probable with editorial styling than with advertising, paramount in my professional life. Mixing editorial assignments in liberally with advertising assignments keeps me fresh, happy, creative and more relaxed.

If I had my druthers, I would take editorial assignments only – books, magazines and newspapers. My background is in cooking and my main interest is to promote cooking and food as one of life’s great pleasures.

Self-Promotion
Finding clients and building a niche for yourself in styling takes time, imagination and perseverance, of course. If you want to work primarily on books, magazines and newspapers get in the habit of reading credits and seek out those photographers.

Tailor your portfolio to your marketing scheme. Do not show a series of highly commercial images to a client looking for a cookbook stylist. As proud as you may be of your work, if it is not relevant, it does not sell you.

If your portfolio is thin, editorial work is a good way to fatten it up. Photographers and clients are much more likely to try out a new stylist on a looser shot. Since the parameters tend to be less rigid when the shots are not for ads, photographers and clients will be more willing to take a risk with a less experienced stylist.

Preparation
As in preparation for any sort of shoot, the more information you have before you get to the studio, the better.

You may be tempted to carry a pared down kit for an editorial shoot, but I have learned the hard way that it is best to prepare just as you would for a commercial shoot. Bring everything.

A Mindset
On an editorial shoot, the food will be more about food and less about product. When aesthetics is the highest priority, a shoot can be very inspiring. I find the freedom of editorial work exhilarating.

If you come to styling from a background of cooking, you may be especially gratified by editorial work. Being able to quickly read and understand a recipe is an essential skill. Because you will probably be the only person on the job who can imagine how a recipe will look before it is made, you will guide the choosing of props, backgrounds and accompaniments.

Working against the clock is a given for a food stylist – on an editorial shoot saving time can be even more important if you and the photographer are working for reduced rates. Digest the recipes carefully and determine which steps and ingredients are superfluous to the image. This will save shopping and cooking time. The photographer and client will applaud your efficiency.

The stylist will often be expected to suggest and provide sides, garnishes, drinks and so on to enhance the food and the shot. See this as an opportunity to try new ideas, express your personal style, enjoy some autonomy and flex your creative muscles.

I keep a file of styling ideas clipped from magazines, brochures and newspapers. A good time to try out something a little less traditional will be on an editorial shoot.

For magazines especially, the message may lean heavily in the direction of “lifestyle” and your styling must promote that. Is the story about formal entertaining, casual dining, a quick supper or weekend breakfasts? Your approach should reflect the occasion the shot will illustrate. Perhaps this is an opportunity to bring on the pulled sugar rose or, conversely, to highlight the beauty of a drip or smear.

Budget
Generally, the pockets are shallower for editorial jobs, meaning you will need to negotiate a fee lower than one charged for an advertising shoot, and you will need to cut costs in other ways. Your shopping for groceries, props and supplies will be closer to the bone, lunch may not be provided from a high-end eatery, and you will need to be very efficient in your prep and shopping time. I have found that shopping and prep time are often not budgeted at all. Efficiency is key. If you can double up your shopping with another job that does include a shopping fee, all the better.

Sometimes it is effective to include an assistant on an editorial shoot. This may seem counter intuitive, but an assistant working at a rate lower than that of a full-fledged stylist can increase productivity by at least double, and maybe more. Your client may prefer this approach and you may, as well.

Wearing Multiple Hats
Editorial shoots are often managed by a very stripped down staff (see “budget” above). A skeleton crew has its pros and cons. While it can speed things along to work without a client or art director, it will be up to the stylist and photographer to generate all on-set ideas.

As well as taxing your creative juices, without a client you will also be responsible for all on-set ideas. The presence of a client of some kind will lessen the possibility of a re-shoot (which can sometimes be at the expense of the photographer and possibly the stylist as well), but will increase the time spent in the studio. More and more, I go to shoots where the images are sent via email to the client for approval before final shooting. While there is usually some wait time involved in online art direction, there is a greatly reduced chance of receiving a disappointing phone call the following day. If they have not seen the image prior to final shooting, an art director may reject a shot for what seems like a totally subjective, arbitrary reason (and might very well be). A pre-approval, in person or online, can be a comfort and guarantee.

If there is talent involved in your shoot, you may be called upon to apply make-up, style clothing and arrange hair. The more versatile and eager you are, the greater your success as an editorial stylist.

The Spice of Life
The love of variety must be what draws many, many stylists to their work. I am no exception. Each job is a new challenge, usually in unpredictable ways.

The challenges of editorial styling overlap with all other assignments: satisfying the client, creating beautiful food, maintaining your patience, solving problems resourcefully, working quickly and cleanly - sometimes under less than ideal circumstances, anticipating problems, being a good team player and paying close attention to the details, to name just some.

Styling for books, magazines and newspapers challenges me in more personal ways, increasing my job satisfaction: Have I maintained the integrity of the recipe? Am I sending the message the author intended? Is the shot artistic? Have I stretched my own creative brainpower? And above all, am I inspiring people to cook and eat well?

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t bite the hand that feeds me and I am grateful for (nearly) any job that comes my way. That said, I am a cook at heart and the more “real” the food is, the happier I feel at the end of the day.
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Lisa Cherkasky, Washington, DC’s most sought-after food stylist, has been a food professional for over 30 years. Known for her creativity, well-honed skills, efficiency and organization, Lisa has been an independent stylist since 1986. Due to her strong work ethic and excellent sense of humor Lisa has loyal clients including The Washington Post, Vegetarian Times Magazine, ADA, Phillips Seafood, Perdue Chicken, the Chicken Council, Hamilton-Beach and Maggie Moo’s. Lisa writes about food as well, primarily for the Washington Post and Vegetarian Times, and she is the author of “The Artful Pie” (Chapters, 1992). Skilled in many home crafts, Lisa is a regularly craft contributor to Washington Post Home. Throughout the years she has taught styling classes at the New England Culinary Institute and L’Academie de Cuisine, in addition to being a speaker at both IACP and Food on Film conferences. Lisa is an active member of Les Dames
d’Escoffier, The Culinary Historians of Washington and IACP. See more of her work at www.lisacherkasky.com, as well as Renée Comet’s work (who did the great shots in this article) at www.reneecomet.com.