Fresh and Fabulous

Judy Kim is a food stylist. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, TV series, and advertising campaigns. She is the Old Masters designer at Sotheby’s.

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Audio Transcript

Judy Kim: I’m Judy Kim. I’m a food stylist based in New York.

I’m so fortunate that my first job, I worked in a flower shop. I just loved being around it. I think that relates a lot to food. Like, flowers have seasons, so does food. Being constantly around something is such a powerful way to learn.

You’re working with things that have its own natural state, whether it’s before they’re really ready to come to bloom, and then past that there’s a whole second life—the process of decay—and it’s equally as beautiful. So many of them, they change their colors, and I think food sort of has that in its ripeness—green tomatoes, really ripe tomatoes—and then you completely put them past that point and maybe turned to mush. They say very different things in those stages and those textures.

Willem Kalf (Dutch, 1619–1693). Still Life with Fruit, Glassware, and a Wanli Bowl, 1659. Oil on canvas, 23 x 20 in. (58.4 x 50.8 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Maria DeWitt Jesup Fund, 1953 (53.111)

Narrator: Kim has an eye for composition, and when she considers Dutch masterpieces her attention is often caught by what isn’t there, what’s called “negative space.” For example, in Still Life with Fruit, Glassware, and a Wanli Bowl, by Willem Kalf.

Kim: I think that negative space is something that I’m always looking to use. There is nothing in the background. Now, it might be there, but to your eye, in this image, you see darkness. But it makes sure that whatever’s here in the front—in the fruit, in the bowl, even this little reflection in the glass—you know, there’s some sort of window, and it lets you know that there’s something happening somewhere else in this room. But it’s saying a lot by drawing your attention in, by not having anything around it so your eye goes right to that space.

Composition is probably one of the most important features of working as a food stylist. Everything’s a little bit off-center: the bowl is a little to the left, it’s a little crooked, we’ve got the heaviness of the bowl taking your focus to the left. You want to be able to draw some attention to something, and obviously the light’s shining really intently on what’s inside of the bowl. The bowl has a strong color; it is a nice contrast to that lemon.

I look at this lemon—and there’s so many lemons in Dutch masters—but actually that’s the most realistic piece of all of it. It’s cut off on the top, you can see all of the little specks of it through the painting texture, and it looks juicy—it looks like you can taste it.

Abraham van Beyeren (Dutch, 1620/21–1690). Still Life with Lobster and Fruit, probably early 1650s. Oil on wood, 38 x 31 in. (96.5 x 78.7 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Edith Neuman de Végvár, in honor of her husband, Charles Neuman de Végvár, 1971 (1971.254)

Narrator: In creating her own still life arrangements, Kim juggles with all kinds of elements, including composition and texture, to evoke a feeling or a narrative. She applies that same critical eye to Abrahem van Beyeren’s painting Still Life with Lobster and Fruit.

Kim: There’s a really rich fabric supporting this table—the velvet—it’s luxurious. It’s draping over and it’s literally overflowing. I see a lot of Dutch masters, there’s a lot of decadence and opulence. And so you get a sense of what kind of people, who is in this painting. And that’s sort of the beauty of you picking certain types of objects.

So you want there to be, sort of, this wild element. There’s this knocked-over piece and it draws your eye up. And your eye literally goes from top to the right and then comes sweeping to the left. And you end with this lobster, and even the little antenna that’s bright and just vivid.

As a food stylist, sometimes you want it to be pristine but you want a little bit of something that confuses your eye and also makes you drawn in. So for example, when we select food for a shoot. For example, with the lobster, I don’t want them to be broken off. I want them to be there and wild in all different directions, versus perfectly pin-straight. It’s just a little bit of realistic, kind of, like, in-the-wild look.

For example, of the peach: it’s just a little fuzzy and you see the pretty pink color. But then you see it’s a little broken open. You can see the inside to understand how delicious and good it is. And the things that I look for are, what’s the eye (in my case it’s often the camera), what’s it gonna pick up on? Is it gonna have a little shine on it? Are you gonna see the juiciness? Are you gonna see that it’s really ripe?

In real life you have things that have decayed and you’ve left them for too long. And you have things that are too fresh, they’re not even ripe yet, but you’re willing to wait. All these kinds of things really get you to understand flavor and whether or not it’s sweet, or if it’s soft, or if it’s crispy.

Jan Steen (Dutch, 1626–1679). The Dissolute Household, ca. 1663–64. Oil on canvas, 42 1/2 x 35 1/2 in. (108 x 90.2 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, 1982 (1982.60.31)

Narrator: To create her own lush, powerful images, Kim considers the relationship between chaos, story, and background. What does she see when she looks at Jan Steen’s painting The Dissolute Household?

Kim: It is so much fun to look at because every time I look at it I see something different. Your eye tends to sort of move around because there’s so many things to look at. I mean, there’s a detail in every single corner of this painting.

I think it’s more about storytelling when you’ve got a big image with lots of little things. This cat—the tail is there. The way that it’s curled, it has a very pleasing sort of swoop to it, and that’s something I feel like food stylists like to have. I think it’s about playfulness. It just feels really satisfying; I think that it gives you a sense that it looks realistic.

And then I find there’s sort of a sweet spot. There’s so many deep meanings in Dutch masters that I appreciate as I learn more about each of these elements. I think that, in food photography, it’s so beautiful when they’re really trying to convey a lot more with the image than just food. And those are the ones that I think make it the most relatable to everybody.