Name of Artist: Francesco Tonelli
Personal Background: Francesco Tonelli immigrated to the United States from Northern Italy in 1987 in order to teach culinary arts at the CIA. He found his love for food photography and gave his notice to the CIA on his 40th birthday in February, 2005 to become a full time food photographer. After he had left the CIA he was with out work for a very long time and he started to fear that he had made a horrible mistake. He had no schooling in photography and is fully self taught to this day. With his persistence, he finally found his first job since he had left the CIA. His first food photoshoot was for a magazine called Cooking Lite. After a rocky road and many different photoshoots he is now a well known food photographer.
Style: All of his pictures possess lots of beauty. All of his photos are well planned out and look perfectly together. They make the viewers feel calm because it is clear that he tries to use as much natural light as possible. Francesco uses all of the aspects of the food to make the perfect picture. The pictures that he takes also have a clear vocal point that make the picture truly beautiful to look at. The pictures also have lots of contrast between the background and the actual food.
Philosophy: The major ideas behind the food pictures are to promote the food itself. They also try to take pictures that can be included in cookbooks and magazines. The main reason that he takes pictures of food is for advertisement purposes. Good pictures of the product that is being sold make people want to buy it. They are trying to say, " Look at this food! You should buy it!".
Influences: This photographer has influenced how I stage and take my food photos. This photographer has helped me think about my lighting more as well as how I plan my photos. Francesco has helped me realize that by adding a solid background it makes the focus more about the food. This photographer has influenced how I think about the beauty in food. This photographer has influenced how I think about setting up my pictures and how there is beauty in every type of food. My Artist was influenced by food photographers at the CIA. From there, he decided that he wanted to do food photography.
Fresh Citrus
Compare and Contrast: Francesco's picture and my picture have a couple of differences between them. His picture has a more vibrant orange color compared to mine which has a darker orange color. In addition, my picture shows a little bit less of the entire orange. Another difference between my picture and his is that mine is a more close up picture and his is taken a little bit farther back. My picture also has a little bit less white background compared to his white background.
Compare and Contrast: My picture and Francesco's are very similar but they have some minor differences. One differences is the color of the avocado pit. The pit of the avocado in Francesco's is a much lighter color compared to the color of my avocado pit. The color of the background is very similar in both of the pictures as well. The coloring of the avocado itself is a little bit different between the two pictures.
Compare and Contrast: There are many similarities and differences between both of our pictures. The coloring of the asparagus is very similar as well as the background of the picture. The amount of asparagus is different as well as the shadow that is made by the asparagus on the right edge. The texture of the asparagus is very similar in both of the pictures. Both of the pictures have very similar backgrounds with shadows underneath the asparagus stems.
Personal Artist Statement: In the picture of the orange, I used the technique of leading lines. I also tried to focus mainly on the lighting of the overall picture. I also tried to create contrast between the food and the background that I used. While I was taking the pictures I was very aware of extra shadows that may have been created and I tried to eliminate them. While I was editing them I was very aware about the contrast and lighting of the pictures. I enjoyed this project and I felt like I had a better understanding of photography after this project. I also liked this photographer because he is fully self taught just like I am.