Playing with my Food: Cordovan in Cuisine

I just love pomegranates. They are such a rich, sensual-looking food. I said it! Fruit has been inextricably linked to human sexuality throughout years of art and art history, especially in Judeo-Christianity. Old Testament depictions of fruits are linked to the fall of Adam and Eve as the fruit from the forbidden tree in Eden; New Testament depictions of fruit have been theorized to represent the fresh, sweet, new life available from the sacrifice of Christ.

Pomegranates, in particular though, have had ties to female fertility and sexuality. Even mythologically, Persephone--a young, fertile, beautiful goddess--was tempted by the pomegranate and lost her freedom and autonomy for it.

Pomegranates are obnoxious to eat if you don't love the flavor, but I love them. I think they're the closest we can get to fresh red currants in America, which isn't saying much... but the bright, tart, fresh flavor makes me think of my love for the elusive ribes rosso.

So! Now that the sun sets so silly early (thank you, daylight savings) I found myself itching to do something inside and not go out. I had pomegranates. I had just enough silly messy things to pull together a mini staging spot for some of these flavors. Rich, vibrant, wonderful fruits, cheese, honeys, and flavors galore.

Not sure I love this series, which is funny given that these colors make up my entire wardrobe. I mostly wear black, white, and this cordovan color. It *is* my color if I can't select black. Honestly, I really struggle with lighting. I don't know why, but for my entire photography career and experience I've always struggled to get enough light to fully expose my photos. I set the f/stop as low as can go, I try not to pass over ISO 400 (sometimes, ISO 500, which I think is what I had to use for these), and I try to lower my shutter stop as slow as possible. But even then, it's just so difficult to get it all together without it being so dark.

Maybe it's my lens? Maybe I need to use my light meter app more often. Also... looking at these photos with fresh eyes make it apparently that saffron threads have a swimmer-like quality to them... guess I really leaned into exploring human sexuality and biology with this one on a subconscious level...

The ingredients used: sour cherry spread, pomegranate, sloppily minced shallots, salami, chestnut honey, saffron threads, rose petals, ricotta cheese, red wine (not pictured), strawberry ginger balsamic (not pictured).