Fresh Adventure: CHIC SIMPLE

Chic Simple was written by Kim Johnson Gross and Jeff Stone, and published in 1995 by Alfred A. Knopf Inc., New York. The photography throughout was produced by Gentl and Hyers, with Food styling by Georgia Downard, and Prop styling by Edward Kemper Design.
To view some of the work that Gentl & Hyers have produced follow this link:
http://www.edgereps.com/ then select Gentl & Hyers.

Gentle and Hyers can also be reached directly at

Gentl and Hyers Photography, 596 Broadway, Suite 902A, New York NY10012.,

Contact Barbara Reiser. Tel: 212 966 1154 Fax: 212 966 0324.,

or email beereiser@gmail.com

Amongst their work in food photography, Gentl & Hyers have also published work for Clean Start by Terry Walters, The Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers, The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum, The Cafe Boulud Cookbook by Daniel Boulud & Dorie Greenspan amongst many others.

The Chic Simple book was not just about the photography, however, which was way ahead of it's time in terms of techniques employed, such as drop focus, shallow depth of field, macro photography - all of which we shall look at further., but it was also a triumph of LAYOUT and TEXT and GRAPHIC DESIGN. The book continuously employs the use of a variety of fonts and text sizes, bold typeface, black and white plus colour photography, ghosting, and illustration - all to the most charming and delightful visual effect.

Ladle with Text, Chic Simple

Page from Chic Simple
Black & White images mixed with
Text in different sizes and fonts

Illustration from Chic Simple by Alexandra Weems

Label Image from Chic Simple

We see an example of the book layout and style here (top left), where a black and white image of a kitchen utensil is added for effect to a page of vertical text of various fonts and sizes, using a quote from Shirley Maclaine to enhance the effect to the reader/viewer. Then we see illustrations drawn by hand (above right), and also the use of a photographed jar label section (above left), which all add to the overall visual spectacle.

Andrea Gentl and Martin Hyers also created interest by using factual pages of images, but interestingly as seen in the following three images, all of PASTA., the first is factual with the various product names attached in text., then they take a macro shot of a single tortelini, and finally a piece of art in the use of a select dish of spagetti.

Dried Pasta fact page, Chic Simple

Green Tortelini, Chic Simple

Spagetti Dish, Chic Simple

This mixture of styles may be one reason why the book was so successful. Including all the above techniques, mingled with mixed font and texts, and then delightful images such as the lemon with the fork (below) based on composition and simplicity.

Lemon with fork, Chic Simple

Further images using a very shallow depth of field, blurring out the background are used, giving the viewer just the sense of what they are looking at is a clever way of forcing the viewer to use there own imagination to visualise the whole scene, as her with the spoon and the turmeric. This image also concentrates on the COLOURS present.