Francesco Tonelli, the Caravaggio of food photography.
Written by: photographer László Sebestyén
Looking at the photos of the 53-year-old Italian former chef-current photographer now living in America the message gets through perfectly: I want to be hungry. His simple, clean, and right-to-the-point shots guide us into an exciting world, in which food itself provides the guidance. His photos are extremely clean and realistic at the same time: he sure plays with our senses as a master.
The consumed food, the sight of the leftover can already make us feel that we see something forbidden, real and last, but not least, something very appetizing. Looking at Tonelli’s photos, the masters of the Low Countries would all gather up, just like painters did when photography appeared, saying: “with the birth of photography, there’s no sense in painting any more.”