Reviving Grandma’s recipes through photography

Photographer Noah Fecks inherited his grandma’s recipe box when the latter passed away. After he took an intriguing and artful shot of one of the recipes and posted it on Instagram, Noah Fecks grabbed the attention of food stylist Victoria Granof. Both decided to collaborate to honour the memory of the photographer’s grandma and the lifecycle of most women of her times who had at heart to impress with their recipes once newly married, and later on continuing to cook for the family. Out of this collaboration emerged a high fashion recipe book: Toast Water.

Grandma’s recipe box was a treasure

Once Granof and Fecks started discussing about the recipe box and having worked together previously, it became obvious to both of them that they definitely needed to collaborate on this “perfect” subject. No sooner said that they met for lunch, rummaging through Grandma’s treasure box which had safeguarded a mix of recipes clipped from magazines and newspapers, and Grandma’s own creation, handwritten or typed. The collection struck an emotional chord with Granof who understood how in those days, recipe cards were a social connection. Unlike today when sharing a recipe has been reduced to copying and pasting a link, in the 70s, hosts bonded with guests by writing down their recipes on a card. Recipe cards were also gifted by guests at bridal showers to help the bride-to-be start her new household.

Teleporting the recipes to modern times

Granof and Fecks had to choose those recipes that would be more creative than others to work with. Granof made sure that there would be no beige food or mashed potatoes that would result as a lump or brownish in the pictures. Granof and Fecks wanted to draw inspiration from the 1970s fashion; the goal was to bring those recipes to modern life in a highly colourful manner, without confining them to that period in time. To be sure to go in the right direction, they decided to team up with Ben Knox and Christopher Spaulding of Reclaim Design for the set design and prop styling, while Adam Kendall Woods handled the art direction and book design. Even if Granof and Fecks are veterans of the cookbook industry, this time they did not work to please clients or publishers.

Creating a little world for each recipe

Fecks and Granof worked at a relaxed pace, starting to shoot at Fecks’ home in Brooklyn. Only five shots were done per day, allowing the team to really meticulously create a little world for each recipe and highlight the beauty of each product as they wished. Certain recipes were easy to photograph, others, such as the turkey loaf proved to be particularly tedious. Dozens of pictures taken still left the team dissatisfied with the work. A week later, they decided to inspire the shooting from the work of Chris von Wangeheim who was a photographer in the 1970s. Fecks and Granof used the same technique of stretching latex on boards with oil on it to create striking texture and dimension. As the title, the team chose Toast Water as it resonated well with the team and it was the last recipe they worked on.

h/t: Martha Stewart
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