Every year there's a new trendy way to burn calories – yoga, P90X, crossfit – each one promising to hold the secret to optimal fitness. Photographer Henry Hargreaves' new photo project provides commentary on the phenomenon by lighting unhealthy food on fire. If you really want to burn away these units of energy, he says, go ahead, burn them.
"I decided that the best way burn calories was to literally take the flame to them," he says.
Hargreaves, 33, who lives in Brooklyn, says he's not trying to thumb his nose at people who work hard to lose weight. He too struggles to stay away from food that is full of yummy, but unhealthy ingredients.
"Every day is a battle to not eat what we wish we were eating," he says. "And I'm by no means outside, or not susceptible to that."
He says he is pointing his finger at the corporate food culture that promotes all the junk that's making us fat.
"Overall this series is much more about eye candy but there is a bit of a statement," he says.
To take the images to their caloric nadir, the food itself is all made out of cake from a local bakery, even the cheeseburger and fries. The only items that were not made out of cake were the french fry box and the chopsticks that go along with the Chinese food. Unfortunately, Hargreaves says all the lighter fluid made the destroyed cakes inedible. The only tasters were the army of ants that invaded his studio after the shoot.
Burning Calories is part an ongoing series, which we've covered previously, where Hargreaves uses photography to explore the relationship between food, personality and culture. In his project No Seconds, he recreated and photographed the last meals of several prisoners on death row.
"I've just always been interested in how food can say something about someone that we struggle to put into words," he says. "With No Seconds I hope I was able to humanize these people for a moment without forgiving or condemning them."
