Carl Warner

Carl Warner (born 1963) is a British artist, director, author and photographer. Warner blends photography and art to make highly conceptual visual images. Based in London, Warner's 25-year career spans still life, advertising and photography. He is best known for his intricate food landscapes where he uses different types of foods and ingredients. He aims to inspire people to look at food in different ways.[1] He is also known for his Bodyscapes.

Carl Warner
Born	1963 (age 56–57) Liverpool, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Education	Maidstone College of Art London College of Printing
Occupation	Photographer, artist, author, director
Years active	1998–present
Notable work	Broccoli Forest Smoked Salmon Sea London Skyline The Valley of the Reclining Woman
Website	carlwarner.com

Early life and education

Warner was born in Liverpool, England in 1963.[2] At age seven, he moved to Kent with his parents. As a child he was inspired by artists such as Salvador Dalí and Patrick Woodroffe, and the record sleeve designs of Roger Dean and Hipgnosis.[3]

Warner attended Maidstone College of Art with the intention of becoming an illustrator. He later found photography to be his preferred medium, as it was faster and more exciting. In 1982, after a year of college he moved to the London College of Printing to complete a degree in photography, film and television.[3]

In 1985, he started assisting David Lowe, a photographer based in Knightsbridge, London. There he met advertising industry professionals such as art directors, model makers and retouchers. After a year of assisting Lowe, he set up his own studio and began creating work for advertising agencies, design groups and PR houses.[3][4]

Warner now lives in Kent and works from his studio based in London.[2]

Career overview

Warner began working as a still life photographer, but then expanded into other areas of commercial photography. He has created landscapes out of food, known as Foodscapes. The origin of the numerous landscapes and food worlds he has created were inspired by food he saw at markets. Warner looked at the food and imagined what it could resemble from the real world.[3]

Artist

Foodscapes

In 1998, Warner created his first piece of food art Mushroom Savannah by using mushrooms as trees and beans and rice below as the earth.[3] After his success with this on the internet, he began to make more elaborate works, often made to look like famous landmarks, and always made out of real food. The goal of these projects is to trick the human eye into thinking the scene is real at first glance, and Warner uses anything from fresh vegetables and fruits to bread, cheese, and sometimes meat and fish, as well as Tungsten lights in order to create the appearance of sunlight. These elaborate Foodscapes are his most popular work and he often gets hired to create them for large food production companies.[5]

Bodyscapes

Warner's more recent Bodyscapes repeats body parts in a pattern that creates the illusion of a landscape. This piece is meant to redefine portraiture by focusing on the importance of every part of our bodies. Warner creates these portraits by photographing the body parts individually and editing them together in order to create a landscape effect.[6]

Pizzascapes

Warner created Pizzascapes as a promotional project for DiGiorno Pizza. The project includes 20 different artworks depicting pizzas in scenes relevant to the pizza toppings, such as a pineapple pizza appearing to be in an island landscape. The backgrounds of these images were created out of a combination of figurines and food; many depict tiny people assembling or interacting with the pizzas.[7]

Director

Television advertisements

Warner began directing television commercials in 2008.[3]

Warner has set up his own production company known as Frooty Films in June 2014.[8] Within the company he has directed and created television commercials for Nestlé, Honey Nut Cheerios, Moe's Southwest Grill and the Milan EXPO 2015.[9][10][11]

The Milan Expo in 2015 focused on Feeding the planet. UK Trade and Investment partnered with Warner to display the UK's impact in global agriculture innovation. Warner created a series of animations using beans, rice, coffee and maize to illustrate the UK's global solutions to feeding the planet. His commercial was titled Resilient Rice.[11]

Warner has closely collaborated with Moe's Southwest Grill to create new augmented reality foodscapes made with Moe's fresh ingredients.[10] Warner's first advertising campaign with Moe's featured their Homewrecker Burrito illustrating an avocado wrecking ball swinging through a house of Moe's chicken. Since then Warner has created six pieces for the company that have been displayed in over 600 locations.[12]

Furthermore, Warner is developing an educational TV program for children including characters made out of healthy food, with the purpose of encouraging healthy eating for children.[13]

Photographer

Most of Warner's work has been in advertising. Warner is considered more of a photographic illustrator who creates and transforms one thing into another using composition and lighting.[14]

The scenes are photographed in layers from foreground to background. The process is time consuming and the food quickly wilts under the lights. Each element is then put together in post production to achieve the final image.[15]

Other worlds

The goal with Warner's other world photography is to use objects that people would not normally take the time to look at. Warner finds beauty in the mundane and the banal, in creating landscapes from the contents of a fridge or building cities from sea shells or car parts.[16]

Still life

Through his own studio Warner created still life photography for Nestlé, Unilever, Hugo Boss, and Whiskas.[17]

Published works

Carl Warner's Food Landscapes

Food Landscapes was published in 2010 by Harry N. Abrams in New York. The book collects Warner's early works spanning from 1998. It shows behind the scenes images of Warner and his team assembling the structures.[18] It covers details of what inspired each Foodscape and how each was created from initial sketches through to the ingredients used in the photography.[3][19]

A World of Food: Discover Magical Lands Made of Things You Can Eat!

Warner's second book, A World of Food, is a children's book published in 2012 by Harry N. Abrams. Each Foodscape is composed primarily of a single color and is accompanied by poems written by Warner. Each image is composed entirely from foods from around the world. With this book, Warner hopes to alter children's perception of food and educate them about healthy eating and nutrition.[3][13]

References

1. "Insights and ideas from Carl Warner, Adobe Photoshop user". Photoshop.com. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
2. "Foodscapes by Carl Warner › ISSUE NO. 206". issueno206.com. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
3. "Society of Unique Artists " About Carl Warner". suartists.org. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
4. "Carl Warner's food landscape photography | CNN". CNN. 16 July 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
5. "Food Artist Creates Edible Worlds Out of Everyday Ingredients". My Modern Met. 15 July 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
6. "Muscular Body Parts Create Stunning Abstract Landscapes". My Modern Met. 29 July 2013. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
7. Indrisek, Scott (15 October 2018). "The Museum of Pizza Owes Its Artists an Apology". Artsy. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
8. "Frooty Films Limited – Company Profile – Endole". suite.endole.co.uk. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
9. "Work – James Mathias 3D Artist". James Mathias 3D Artist. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
10. "Moe's Southwest Grill Launches Foodscapes with Augmented Reality Aspect". Foodable Network. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
11. "UK at Milan Expo 2015 celebrates Feeding the Planet Week". Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
12. Grill, Moe's Southwest. "Moe's Southwest Grill Unveils Augmented Reality Artwork, Gives Guests A New Way To Interact With Their Honestly Awesome Food". PR Newswire. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
13. Varolli, Regina (23 November 2010). "Carl Warner's Cool Food Landscapes". HuffPost. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
14. "Food Artist Creates Edible Worlds Out of Everyday Ingredients". My Modern Met. 15 July 2018. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
15. "It's nearly impossible to tell that these stunning landscapes are made entirely of food". Business Insider. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
16. "Carl Warner – Metcalfe Lancaster – Food & Drink". metcalfelancaster.com. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
17. Paradise, Production. "Carl Warner – Still Life Photography Spotlight Oct 2014 magazine – Production Paradise". productionparadise.com. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
18. "Foodscapes, Food Landscapes by Carl Warner". Laughing Squid. 14 November 2011. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
19. Carl Warner's Food Landscapes.