|
|
|
|
FOOD STYLING & PROPPING: Traditional Mexican Styling For Ana Martínez, Mexican cooking is not merely a curiosity; it is in her blood and her soul. Ana has lived almost all of her life in México City, where her father was a prominent architect and where her mother introduced her to the cultural and culinary richness of the Mexican kitchen. This led to a life-long love of the many traditions and regional variations that make cuisine one of México's great treasures. Most of the props that appear in her traditional photos are taken from the treasures she has collected over many years in her home in Colonia San Angel, and that now fill her home in San Antonio with the character of Central México.
(The images above are from a calendar for the Mexican poultry giant Bachoco. First, as consulting chef, Ana prepared a different chicken recipe for each month, then styled the photography for each of the twelve recipes. The styling included the use of rebozos from the Franz Meyer Museum of Mexican Crafts in Mexico City.)
(The two images above were made for different clients. The first is for the San Antonio, Texas restaurant Los Barrios, and the second was the cover of a recipe booklet used to show Mexican homemakers how they could use the products of Mc Cormick Spices. Ana produced many recipes for McCormick and then styled the photographs.) The images on this page are only a few of the hundreds of images she has styled with the goal of presenting the qualities of "Mexicanidad." Ana believes this can best be done by showing the natural ingredients that go into the dishes to be photographed, and to place the food on traditional tableware that best accentuate the beauty of the food's natural colors. Finally, she likes to complete the frame with the types of details that give the Mexican home its warmth and character, whether they are rebozos or flowers or ceramics. Here in the United States Ana has become something of an ambassador for the authentic traditional and contemporary cuisines of México, and her work has been recognized by the Mexican government. The Instituto de México, a cultural branch of the Secretariate of Foreign Relations, has commissioned her to begin a series of programs to introduce the regional cuisines of México here in the United States, and the Mexican Consul General has nominated her for recognition by CONACULTA, the national Commission on Arts and Culture.
(The images above include a photo for an agricultural hacienda in the Mexican State of Queretaro and the poster for the Mexican Cultural Institute's "Festival of the Chiles Rellenos")
More Traditional Mexican Food Styling
|
|
___________________________________________________________________________________________ |
.jpg)
