Photographers Create the Tiniest of Dramas onYour Dinner

Ifyou're playing with your mashed potatoes at dinner, it's a safe bet you'resocially uncomfortable or preoccupied by something. Unless, of course, you’rewith Pierre Javelle and Akiko Ida, inwhich case you’re probably helping them craft their next work of art. TheirMINIMIAM series uses fruit, vegetables, and sweets as the edible backdrops forsurprisingly engaging dramas played out by figurines like those used in model train sets.

"This scale is really interesting as it allows you to work in thevery small," says Javelle. "The size of the figurines is perfect for creatingsurprising scenes with very ordinary elements."

Thefood often provides inspiration for the wide variety of cleverly crafted scenesthe married couple composes. The surface of a sprinkled donut becomes a rollinggolf course, the innards of a gourd an alien landscape with a healthy dashof RidleyScott. Other times, the figures fuelthe idea.

"For example, one of first images is a figurine of a man with a mowermowing, which gave us the urge to cut a kiwi," says Javelle, "especially sincea new breed of hairless kiwi appeared at our super market!"

Theseries, which began in 2002, includes more than 60 diptychs. The first of eachpair shows a close crop on a strange or funny scene playing out on unfamiliarterrain. The second image zooms out to reveal its culinary context,often inspiring a chuckle through a watering mouth. The figurines are 1/87scale — thepopular HO model train scale — purchased from hobbyshops. “They are about 1.2 cm (0.47 inches) tall, and itwould be very difficult for us to manufacture the figures with the detail yousee in our images,” says Javelle.

Theproject grew from the couple'sshared childhood interests in food and tiny things. Javelle cites Ida's early habitof creating wee comic strips and photographing piecesof food. Javelle grew up enamored by theminiscule pebble gardenhis grandmother had. “I was fascinated by the composition of the colorfulpebbles and tiny bridge,” he says. “This was a mind-blowing landscape thatreally impressed me.”

Thesmall scenes also imply larger concerns of today — GMOs, global warming, war,mankind's relationship with nature. "This desire to dominate, convert, enslavenature is a bit like what we do when cooking," says Javelle, whoalso insists that the images are not meant to be takentoo seriously. "The purpose of these images is, above all, to please people. Webelieve that art is not there only to reveal the injustices or the horror ofthe world. Sometimes of course it is a subtler means of conveying messages, butthe boundary between activism and artistic expression caneasily become blurred."

Inaddition to using food photography as means of expression and entertainment,the pair behind MINIMIAM also have successful careers as commercialphotographers of cuisine. Even as veterans of the trade, and with their artsitting on the plate, the urge to take a bite can be pretty hard to resist."Often when I place a figure next to a big piece of cake chocolate, Ihave a furious desire to become the figure," says Javelle. "But I would definitely have a very upset stomachafterwards."

Photos:Pierre Javelle and Akiko Ida