Photography by Maciek Miloch
When making a magazine, visually-driven features—those where images drive the storytelling—are prime real estate. Add a ‘conceptual cover’ to that, and you’ve got yourself a happy art department. When our Editor-in-Chief, Jamila Robinson, entrusted us with creating Bon Appétit’s first-ever Innovation Issue, the art department seized the opportunity to shake things up; we opened the doors to our photography community and visual contributors for photo pitches. The result became our cover story — and star. A visual representation of an egg in a state of transformation, bisected into two distinct halves: partially cooked (with precision by a vibrant pink laser beam) and partially raw sitting on a vast atmospheric surface of deep blues and purples. In this behind-the-scenes recap, we lift the curtain on the creative process, from concept to completion.
Phase 1: Identifying the story
The Innovation issue explores the relationship between food, technology, and society. That’s the question we asked photographers, designers, and artists to explore. When the pitches came in, we were blown away. The hardest part was narrowing down our options. After weeks of thorough consideration, one in particular stood out to us: a proposal by Maciek Miloch, a Berlin-based photographer who sought to capture the evolving relationship between food and technology. His pitch included thorough and specific ideas like Precision Agriculture, Biotechnology, Hyperpersonalization, Transport/Retail, and Immersive Dining, each supported by research and initial visual concepts.
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Senior Photo Editor, Megan Paetzhold and I immediately shared the story with the edit team and, from there, we were all convinced we had found our cover story. Our Content Director, Hali Bey Ramdene then sat down with Jamila, and editor, Pervaiz Shallwani, to create an editorial outline, incorporating many of Maciek’s themes. The direction was clear: our story, The Future of Food is Now, would dive into the transformative impact of technology in our world of food, but not for the future, for today.
