Photographer turns concert riders into baroque food porn

 

Britney Spears: Fish and chips, McDonald’s cheeseburgers without the buns, 100 prunes and figs, a framed photo of Princess Diana.

Musicians have long been notorious for bizarre rider requests while on tour. From divas to rock stars, many ask to be provided with a bewildering array of foodstuffs backstage, in part to match weird appetites, but sometimes just to make sure the venue is paying attention. Over at Vice, photographer Henry Hargreaves has taken some of the most outlandish of these riders, and turned them into food porn.

Hargreaves originally planned for a much larger series, but eventually hones his ideas down into focusing on just the most bizarre parts of each rider. He says:

"I initially thought I would try and shoot all of the items listed on the catering riders but quickly realized that this would become an exercise in wasting money. So I decided to focus on the quirkiest requests and shoot them in a Flemish Baroque still-life style because I felt that there was a direct connection between the themes in these types of paintings and the riders: the idea of time passing and the ultimate mortality of a musician’s career as the limelight inevitably fades—they only have a short time in which they are able to make these demands and have them fulfilled."

His move of taking these decidedly modern requests, and photographing them in a very old fashion style creates gorgeous images that become that much more interesting if you know their origin.

It's also an intriguing look into the desires of the different artists: Prince, for example, who wanted a doctor on hand to give him B12 shots; Nine Inch Nails' request for cornstarch; and Billy Idol wanting "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" and chocolate chip cookies.

 

Frank Sinatra: One bottle each: Absolute, Jack Daniel’s, Chivas Regal, Courvoisier, Beefeater Gin, white wine, red wine. Twenty-four chilled jumbo shrimp, Life Savers, cough drops.

(via FStoppers)