Made in America

This piece, led by Tim Carman’s reporting with development by Shelly Tan, shows how American food in fact tells the story of immigration and transformation. The challenge was creating a presentation that would seamlessly combine four unrelated dishes – spaghetti and meatballs, queso, California roll, and gumbo. We ultimately decided a reversed black digital presentation style could be used to create a seamless scrolling experience on the page. My role was to conceptualize the look and feel of the photography and set design to execute this black on black theme. I thought texture would be a good way to differentiate the vignettes and had different backgrounds created for each. I then art directed the photo shoot coordinating with a freelance team made up of a photographer, two food stylists, and a prop stylist. The cinemagraphs were produced using burst photography. I also designed the print companion to this piece.

NOMINEE: James Beard Award for Innovation in Storytelling

To view this project: https://wapo.st/american-food

Credits: Photos by Greg Powers; Food Styling by Lisa Cherkasky and Carolyn Robb; Prop styling by Limonata Creative