I Never Want to Eat Another Hamburger Again

September was Uptown Magazine's Food Issue and I drew an assignment to visit and shoot the wares of something like a dozen burger places in Charlotte for an article about the ancient food item (the sandwich actually pre-dates Ghengis Kahn. Who knew?) But what this really means is that I went to all these places and scarfed down my subject matter as soon as the lens cap was back on.

The burger in the shot above is actually one of my own making (dont worry, I ate that one too) and as a photographer it's also a bit of a statement about food photography. Food photography often strikes me as very sterile and overly contrived. The buns in most shots like this are often made from carved wood and often have sesame seeds precisely glued into place. I wanted to make a sophisticated high-end image of a burger in terms of lighting and execution, but I wanted to shoot a big gnarly burger that was anything but neat. I wanted juicy, and messy--something you could smell right through the page. I hope it worked.