Visual Jockey

Martini Bar
Originally uploaded by vjphoto.

This is the picture I fell in love with.

I was introduced to VJ at Old Swiss Inn, where he was mooching off the free wifi (as I do at Apartment 1B) and working on some photos on his mac. "This is VJ," my friend said, "He's a food photographer." I was intrigued. But had apprehensions. After all, everyone's a photographer nowadays. Some (Lori of dessertcomesfirst.com, Franco of tableforthreeplease.blogspot.com, the great Aun Koh of chubbyhubby.net) better than others (like that margauxlicious - horrible, horrible pictures!).

Still, I have gained tremendous respect for anyone who can really work a camera (like Johann Espiritu) since I bought my first Canon and went trigger happy on ducks at the Makati City Park and the Greenbelt Park in 2004 so I decided to check his work out.

I was really impressed. VJ's photos reminded me of chubbyhubby's (don't you just love how he blurs the background? i can never get that no matter how many times i click with the tulip!). And he was able to make even a vegetarian sandwich look delicious.

"What's the hardest thing to make delish?" I asked over coffee at Starbucks (I HAD to get to know the man behind the art). He paused to think. "Spaghetti?" I offered. "No, spaghetti's easy. Try taking pictures of ... tofu!" Lol. I had to agree. How do you make white blocks look appetizing? But browsing through his flickr photopage (flickr.com/photos/vjphoto - note that it's without an S!), I saw the picture he was referring to. And guess what, he was able to make the tofu look yum.

But some people are born photographers. Meaning it's in their blood. His grandfather, press undersecretary in his day, was a photojournalist. So is his father, who also worked for the government and, through his photos, somehow documented history.

His primary line is actually photojournalism. Listening to him over a Pellegrino after a really bad Americano (it was the worst Americano i've had in my once-Starbucks-dependent life), I see it's current events that stirs his blood. He just got back from Basilan and may go to Myanmar next week. Obviously not for the food. He contributes to Reuters and has an agent that sends his pictures to Time Magazine and the like.

He got into food photography in college. His thesis (UST) was on - dig this - The Evolution of Philippine Streetfood. I have yet to get my hands on it. He talks about how the streetfood gets "from the street to the silver platter". Like balut sa kanto and balut sa Ebun (Greenbelt)? Exactly.

He was fascinated by how food could tell a story and paint a cultural background. After he graduated, the publishing house behind Cook Magazine hired him although he had no professional experience. And he's been capturing stills of food since. He just came from a shoot of Jewish food when I met with him.

Where else have we seen his works? One of his first clients was Mama Sita. One of his latest clients is the Mandarin. Know those martini pictures in the Martinis menu? That's VJ.

www.lightstalkers.org/veejayvillafranca