testing, testing: annabelle breakey
Annabelle Breakey isn’t shy about her love of photographing fast food. Her foray into the field of French fries and Frappuccinos began in 2000 (with first clients being Burger King and Starbucks) after the dot-com bubble burst and her previous high-tech and product catalog work was stymied. “When the implosion happened, I was like, that’s it, I'm only going to shoot beautiful things and work with interesting stylists,” she remembers. “That’s when I started shooting food and editorial, and now I’m in the lane of super fun, colorful, conceptual food.”
To keep her creative energy in step with her eclectic clients, Breakey does tests. These tests—photo shoots designed and directed by Breakey outside of client work—are opportunities to work with her trusted steed of stylists to explore a concept, exercise new photographic techniques, and ultimately develop portfolio pieces that might entice existing or potential accounts. The tests exemplify Breakey’s technical ability and allow her to reveal creative impulses that might not always appear in client work.
This year, Breakey undertook both food and cocktail testing. “I was eager to try something new, different, fresh, colorful, and contemporary with fast food,” Breakey explains of her fast food tests. “The one thing I really wanted to achieve in the images was movement.” Breakey decided to use handheld foods in the test images to signal both movement and personality—by showing a hand, Breakey could also dress up the image by indicating a certain persona through wardrobe, jewelry, and nail color. There is movement, as well as a significant degree of mess. Ketchup, cheese, and egg yolks run down hands, adding life and levity—as does a lime green fanny pack that acts as a third hand for transporting tacos. “These images aren’t static, they’re really alive. They would work on social media or on menu boards.”
In Breakey’s cocktail testing shots, she was after movement of another kind. At the end of a year of COVID quarantine, Breakey wanted to transport the viewer to another location—a kind of vacation of the mind. “I really wanted these test images to transcend—to take viewers to the pool, or a speakeasy in New York, or to the Mediterranean. When you can’t transcend your environment, how can you play with it? Like putting a cocktail in the medicine cabinet” she laughs.
Using materials and props from former shoots, and a bevy of beautiful liquor bottles, Breakey and her stylists went to work to build sets for the eye to imbibe. These images have strong geometry, saturated colorways, and more than a touch of glam.
Breakey’s number one rule for photographing food is: “Make it look overwhelmingly delicious.” If this is a test of the trade, Breakey is passing with flying colors. To see more, head over to Annabelle’s site.