As part of our book proposal for La Figa: Visions of Food and Form,  Seattle filmmaker Dan McComb has just produced a fantastic new short video, featuring Chef Tiberio Simone at the Pike Place Market, talking about the project, food, life, and love…

La Figa Pike Place from Dan McComb on Vimeo.

Work on the La Figa: Visions of Food and Form project is continuing – we should have some news to report on publication of the book some time this spring. Meanwhile, Tiberio and I continue to shoot. We recently did two different shoots with two different pairs of women and two different small round fruits (grapes and cherry tomatoes). We are saving the final images for the book, but here are some fun behind the scenes shots of the process (it is a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it)…

Click for larger images…

As mentioned a few posts ago, Tiberio – and his work on the La Figa Project –  stars in an upcoming documentary film about independent business people. The movie is called SHINE, and it is being produced by Dan McComb of Biznik. The director, Ben Medina of Kingmaker Mobile Group was generous enough to produce a two minute preview video of Tiberio’s role in the film.

Without further ado, meet Tiberio…
(if you have trouble playing it on your computer, please get the latest version of the Adobe Flash Player)

As mentioned in my recent post Painted Backdrops, we were recently in the studio/gallery of painter Jose Luis Rodriguez Guerra, so Tiberio could be filmed in action creating a couple La Figa pieces for an upcoming movie. The title of the film is SHINE – it is a documentary about independent business people, produced by Dan McComb (co-founder founder of Biznik), and directed by Seattle film-maker Ben Medina. Here are some “making of” shots from that day…

(Pop quiz for the photographers reading this – why is the background so blue in the third shot? How would you fix it in post-processing if it bothered you?)

Use of painted backdrops is quite standard in photography. I generally find them to be ok at best, and horrifically cheesy at worst. But it is not every day you get to use absolutely gorgeous painted backdrops that are each worth substantially more than your car.

Yesterday, Tiberio and I brought the La Figa live installation to the studio/gallery of Jose Luis Rodriguez Guerra – an  incredibly talented painter, originally from Mexico, but now living and working in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. Tiberio is being featured in an upcoming documentary film, and we were there to get footage of him creating some La Figa pieces. Jose was kind enough to lend his space for the filming. More details about the movie (and of course still photos) will be coming in my next blog post, after I have had a chance to post-process the images.

While waiting for some extra video lighting to arrive, I did a spontaneous quick shoot with Reyna, one of our absolute favorite La Figa models. Regular readers (and anybody who was at the Seattle Erotic Art Festival this year) will undoubtedly recognize her. Jose generously allowed us to use his stunning canvases as the backdrop for these photographs.

Also note that Reyna is available for modeling gigs of all kinds. If you have a project that she would be suited for, and would like to get in touch with her about it, just drop me a line, and I will introduce you.

(Click for larger images)