A few days ago, I was leafing through my roommate’s copy of Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook, It’s All Good. Aside from having some rare photos of Gwyneth in her natural habitat (read: carelessly laughing while eating a vegan and/or gluten-free apple tart), what was so awe-inspiring about Paltrow’s foodie wisdom that was worth buying this ginormous, $55 volume?
Italian photographer Dan Bannino embodies this question in his tongue-in-cheek and glamorous new photo series, Still Diet. Bannino’s concept revolved around taking the well-documented diets of celebrities and envisioning them as if they were still lifes from the 17th century. Above is Bannino’s take on the aforementioned Paltrow’s Detox diet. Below is Willem Claesz Heda’s Still-Life with Turkey-Pie. Similar, no?
Bannino’s elevation of celebrity culture to the Old Masters makes me realize that I sound kind of ridiculous referring to Beyoncé as “Queen B”. Speaking of B, Bannino tackles her own Master Cleanse Diet, and he definitely doesn’t shy away from its stranger aspects, including a pyramid of pink toilet paper.
He doesn’t stop at our favorite pop stars – even Bill Clinton gets the satirical treatment for his Cabbage Soup Diet. There’s nothing more American than farm goods, right?
Bannino is conscious that there have always been nutty celebrities that attract the attention of the public. Historical figures are also included, perhaps since these archaic sugar-addicted souls eventually moved towards elaborate and excessive diets. For example, Luigi Cornaro became famous for his scant meals of a single egg.
Lord Byron, a writer bathed in debauchery and hopeless romanticism, curbed his caloric intake to just veggies in order to maintain his physique.
These diet-portraits are a good reminder of just how much celebrity culture can get out of hand, and that maybe Katy Perry’s crazy diet that you read about in People magazine is exactly as it sounds – crazy.
Check out the rest of the portraits and tell us your favorite in the comments!
Images via Design Boom, londomfilmfiesta.co.uk
