There's something unsettling — freakish, even — about Lawrie Brown's photos of everyday meals.
In one photo, the California-based photographer has placed a shockingly blue raw chicken atop a bed of rice and peas. In another, pink cereal puffs float in a sea of yellow milk. And Brown slathers three hefty scoops of green ice cream with purple fudge in a third, with blood-red cherries as garnish. Other photos in her "Colored Food Series" feature green corn, blue crackers and green spaghetti.
These dishes are familiar, but their natural colors have been swapped for bizarre tones. Instead of roast chicken food porn, Brown gives us an unappetizing, alien-looking chicken. And the pure white we're so used to seeing in the cereal bowl has been replaced with a sort of yellow goop.
Some of these colors, like the blue on the chicken and the green on the corn, are latex paint. But the pink cereal, the green ice cream and the vibrant block of cheddar cheese were sold in those eye-popping colors.
Brown says the project came about as she started hearing about food additives, and the more she learned the more fascinated — and repulsed — she grew. Health advocacy groups say there's mounting scientific evidence linking artificial food dyes to behavioral issues in children. The Food and Drug Administration is currently probing that link.
