Jesse Warner takes food photography and flips it on its head. The Brooklyn-based photographer has built his rep by making a beautiful mess with his subjects – models in ramen baths, messy pizza interactions, and glitter-bombed spaghetti that breaks all the conventional rules1. While commercial food photographers obsess over perfect lighting and styled perfection, Warner deliberately gets chaotic, capturing the raw, sensual, often ridiculous relationship we have with what we eat.
When he's not behind the camera, Warner heads up the "Spaghetti Mafia" street art crew, bringing together NYC artists like FlyFlyLes, The Clay Universe, Drips, and others who plaster the city with their work2. During a recent exhibition, he featured these collaborators alongside his photography, creating a combined showcase of their collective talents.
Warner's path into photography wasn't through traditional channels. He actually worked his way through kitchens, even putting in time at a Michelin-starred spot before fully diving into photography during the pandemic3. This explains a lot about his work – the guy knows food intimately, both how it's made and how it looks behind the scenes in a professional kitchen. His photography presents a different perspective on food than what we typically see in traditional food magazines and advertisements.
His art breaks out of traditional gallery spaces, showing up as stickers, apparel, and full-blown installations that engage multiple senses. At a recent show, the smell of ramen filled the room while viewers could experience different elements of the exhibition – exactly as Warner intended: "The experience of having guests open the door and being immersed with a steamy, warm, fragrant smell of ramen while they viewed my art was exactly like I wanted- multisensory."
Warner's built connections with street artists as far away as Paris (linking with the Writers 2 Cuisine crew), while continuing to develop his distinctive approach to food and photography2. His work offers a refreshing perspective on how food, bodies, and creativity can interact in unexpected ways.
