I am a food photographer. The work is a celebration of the everyday, of daily ritual, of the land and the water. I make work about food and food culture, both near and far. My first love is narrative documentary photography. Being in the field and on location with farmers, artists, bakers and cooks is an intimate thing. People let me into their world to make images and tell stories. I am trusted to make images the beauty in their work and products. The pandemic forced me much closer to home where I am making images that celebrate food, local farmland, and moments of my days. I find myself in my studio and turning to other media that have commonalities with a photographic process. I’ve returned to printmaking, mostly monoprint, collagraph, and linocut. But Suminagashi is a new world to me. It’s a meditative art form of floating ink on water. Very much like waiting and looking for an image while photographing, Suminagashi is looking for just the moment to pull a print. I print on natural papers, cotton, and silk to make objects for everyday.
The images I make range from still life on set to environmental portraits taken on location to abstract explorations. Those images, textures, colors, that land or water, can spur drawings, paintings or prints. Some pieces are started with an image transfer. I choose to work with non-toxic materials as often as possible, watercolor, acrylic, and Akua pigments over oil based paints and inks. Digital photography and cyanotype over silver based darkrooms.
Making a photograph is about capturing one moment. I think of my work in other media as a collection of moments. The geometry is different when I make an image from a string of observations, looking many times. Photographs describe what and who is there. They are at their best, a narrative in one frame. When my hands are in the work, it’s messier and a different kind of visceral. Marks and brush strokes that tend to be bold, unpredictable, and seemingly impulsive. As I explore ways of making images during this odd time, I’m finding the combination of photography and printmaking processes exciting.
What inspires me? The world around me. These days much more near than far. Food and food culture from days spent on farms and in kitchens and exploring markets to the rhythms of my own kitchen and the feeling of a meal shared. The colors, textures, the physical place of food. Food culture is as much about knowing where food comes from as where your roots are. While I am working I am thinking about drives through farmland, the textures and colors and sounds of markets, the feelings of meals shared.
I grew up in a family where childhood and magical thinking were sacred.
Art and science were equally valued. We were surrounded by books, crayons, and larger than life, fun, quirky people who had stories to share.
I’ve drawn and painted since I can remember. My Grandfather gave me my first camera. I can’t remember a time before I had a box of crayons. Thousands of images later, I’m still making pictures. The world is a big busy place, and everyone has a story...
I tell stories in pictures.
Elizabeth holds a BA in American Studies from Smith College and a Graduate Certificate in Documentary Photography and Ethics from the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. She completed her foundational studies at the Herron School of Art and Design and concentrated in photography and book arts. She studied printmaking, book arts, and street photography at the prestigious Sculoa Internazionale di Grafica, Venezia. She is a graduate of The Institute of Culinary Education. (That’s right! Elizabeth is also a trained pastry chef.) She is a member of the SCBWI and a graduate of the Children’s Book Academy.
New Jersey based. Available for travel
photo@elizabethmassa.com
+1 609 651 0120