The Photographer's Cookbook

by Lisa Hostetler (Contributor)

In the late 1970s, the George Eastman Museum approached a group of photographers to ask for their favorite recipes and food-related photographs to go with them, in pursuit of publishing a cookbook. Playing off George Eastman's own famous recipe for lemon meringue pie, as well as former director Beaumont Newhall's love of food, the cookbook grew from the idea that photographers' talent in the darkroom must also translate into special skills in the kitchen. The recipes do not disappoint, with Robert Adams' Big Sugar Cookies, Ansel Adams' Poached Eggs in Beer, Richard Avedon's Royal Pot Roast, Imogen Cunningham's Borscht, William Eggleston's Cheese Grits Casserole, Stephen Shore's Key Lime Pie Supreme and Ed Ruscha's Cactus Omelette, to name a few. The book was never published, and the materials have remained in George Eastman Museum's collection ever since. Now, nearly 40 years later, this extensive and distinctive archive of untouched recipes and photographs is published in The Photographer's Cookbook for the first time. The book provides a time capsule of contemporary photographers of the 1970s—many before they made a name for themselves—as well as a fascinating look at how they depicted food, family and home, taking readers behind the camera and into the hearts and stomachs of some of photography's most important practitioners.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Photography

160 pages, Hardcover

Published June 28, 2016

Reviews

[Sian Lile-Pastore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book! Such great design and photography, even love the font.
Recipes and photographs collected from photographers back in the 70s and quite recently gathered together in this book.
I have no intention of actually making these, but it's a delightful read.

[Jennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This strange, indie-feel cookbook is the idea of a woman bored with her job who decided to start this book as a side project during the 70s.

Photographer's pictures and recipes are featured in artistic and odd ways; a bare breasted woman with a raw chicken pouring milk out of it (chicken pitcher) onto corn flakes. It's a very love/hate reaction.

I found this book amusing after the melange of cookbooks that I have been reading lately.

A visual feast as for most of the recipes I would pass on them.

Adore the unique concept.

Worth a look for sure.