terra cibus – Art, Food, Science – Caren Alpert
Artist Talk: Thursday, May 19 at 7pm, FREE
Exhibit Dates: May 7 – June 2
Location: Harvey Milk Photo Center, 50 Scott St., SF
Curator: Melissa Keesor, Director of Harvey Milk Photo Center
Gallery Hours: T-Th 3–8:30pm & Sa 11am–4:30pm
Caren Alpert is a San Francisco-based fine art and commercial photographer. She specializes in food, travel, and lifestyle topics, and has taught editorial photography at Academy of Art University. Born in New York, and raised in Tucson, Arizona, Caren earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography and graphic design from the University of Arizona. Caren started her career as a photo editor in New York working with titles such as Health and Money Magazines. In addition, she’s worked as an editor and researcher for Vogue, George, and for Miramax Films. Much of Caren’s commercial life centers around culinary topics; but, she is also a science geek at heart. As a result, she found a way to combine her three favorite topics: food, technology and art, by shooting food with an electron microscope. Caren’s fine art photography focuses on her examination of food, both visually and culturally.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My Life with Science, Art and Food
What’s in our food?
What’s the difference between a bird’s-eye view of a remote vegetable crop and a microscopic swath from a pineapple leaf? How distinct is a pile of table salt from miles and miles of icebergs? As a food lover and a photographer, I answer these questions visually. Using scientific laboratory photo equipment, I journey over the surfaces of both organic and processed foods: my own favorites and America’s over-indulgences. The closer the lens got, the more I saw food and consumers of food (all of us) as part of a larger eco-system than mere sustenance. This particular combination of science, photography and food has never been explored before. I am using equipment that is traditionally used for science and academic advancement for art. Turning that notion on its head is exhilarating for me. Connecting people and their food consumption is something that I hope to achieve by empowering viewers to reconsider how they think about their food, using art, rather than a plate and spoon. In this day and age when there’s so much rhetoric about food science, food journalism, food history, food how-to, what about a visual survey of what we all need, want and love (3-5/times/day)?
EXHIBITS
Solo
PHOTO Gallery, Oakland, CA, Feb 2014 – April 2014
Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO, September 2013 – November 2013
CitiGroup, NYC, NY, 9 Nov 2012 – 31 January 2013
Camerawork, Portland, OR, June – July, 2012
James Beard House, New York, NY, 2 November – 31 December, 2011
Group
“Flavors of Photography”, Palette Gallery, San Francisco, 1 October – 28 November, 2020
“Chew”, Opalka Gallery, Albany, NY, 1 November – 20 December, 2019
“Seeing Red”, Gray Loft Gallery, Oakland , 8 February – 8 March, 2018
“Nourish: Food as Sustenance and Pleasure”, Texas Woman’s University, 11 Feb – 13 March 2016
“COLLISION20: bilocate”, MIT/Boston CyberArts Gallery, 17 January, – 23 February, 2014
“Transformations”, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, 3 December – 27 December, 2013
“Ecology of Food,” The Bertha V.B. Lederer Gallery, SUNY Geneseo. 3 October – 10 December 2012
“Salon des Sens”, BarnDiva, Healdsburg, CA, 2 June – 12 June 2012
“botanic/organic”, Union St. Gallery, Chicago, IL, 29 February – 31 March, 2012
“Hetero Types”, Prairie Gallery, Cincinnati, OH, 12 November – 31 December, 2011
“You First”, The Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Orange, CA, 1 October – 29 October, 2011
Food Photo Festival, Tarragona, Spain, 29 September – 2 October, 2011
“Food Con”, Harrison Center for the Arts, Indianapolis, IN, 2 September – 30 September, 2011
“Top 40 International Juried Exhibition”, LACDA, Los Angeles, CA, 9 June – 29 July, 2011
LECTURES
“Food: Exploring the Familiar” TEDx, San Jose, April 2012
“Creative Professional Series / Apple + APA”, San Francisco, July 2012
AWARDS
IPA/International Photography Awards, The Lucie Foundation 2012
PUBLICATIONS/RADIO
“Curious Feast” Postcard Box, Princeton Architectural Press, April 2016
“Photoshop Spotlight” Series, Adobe, July 2013
“Good Food with Evan Kleiman” KCRW/NPR, Los Angeles, January 2013
“Edibles Up Close” Orion Magazine, May/June 2012
“TECH – E | Project” PDN (Photo District News), February 2012
“Start” Wired UK, January 2012
“The Food Seen” on Heritage Network Radio, January 3, 2012 (Episode #83)
“The Visualizer” Wall St. Journal December 2011
“Aperture” New Scientist Magazine, December 2011
“Get The Picture?” Food Network Magazine, November 2011
I Want You Magazine, #6, Seattle, 2011
“Click” San Francisco Magazine, San Francisco, September 2011
“Small World” Real Eats, New York, August 12, 2011
“Small portions” The Daily, New York, July 23, 2011
“Pictorial” Patek Philippe Magazine, London, Volume III Number 4, 2011
SELECTED BLOG AND WEBSITE FEATURES
“An Electron Microscope Reveals……” Co. Design (Fast Company), 9 November 2012
“Artist Gets Up Close and Personal With Food” Design You Trust, 7 August 2011
“Eat At Your Own Risk” Pictory, 3 August 2011
“All This Useful Beauty” The Observer’s Very Short List; The Observer, 27 July 2011
“Picture of the Day: Our Food, Seen Through an 85x Microscope” The Atlantic, 26 July 2011
“Caren Alpert: My Life With Science, Art and Food” PDN: Photo District News, 22 July 2011
“Take a (Much, Much) Closer Look at Your Food” Bon Appétit, 20 July 2011
“Is That A Landscape Or A Fortune Cookie?” The Picture Show; NPR, 20 July 2011
“Microscope photography of food” Boing Boing, 19 July 2011
“Photo Set of the Day” The Daily What, 19 July 2011
Artist Profile, Lost at E Minor, 19 July 2011
“Behind the Curtain” Flavorpill, 18 July 2011
Artist Profile, Feature Shoot, 6 July 2011
PRICE LIST 2020 (unframed)
Edition of 15 11” X 14” $1,500
Edition of 5 20” X 28” $3,600
Edition of 5 36” X 48” $5,000
Edition of 3 42” x 60” $7,500 (plexi face mount)
To purchase please contact the photographer directly at caren@carenalpert.com, www.carenalpert.com
