- Stylist.

- Stylist and... (Isabella chuckles) Nice.

There we go.

(soft music) - If we look at how much we talk about and photograph and video food in our culture, like we love food.

It makes us happy, it's tasty.

We kind of obsess about it and I love food also.

I think photographing it and just having a lot of fun and playing with it showcases that even more, and especially doing exceptionally fun things with it.

All right, let's smash these!

(upbeat rock music) (plastic thudding) (plastic thudding) (assistant chuckling) You're almost there.

My name is Isabella Cassini and I am a photographer specializing in food, still life, conceptual work.

Okay, what should we throw down first, gents?

My project "Splashes, Crashes and Smashes" is pretty much what it sounds like.

It's splashes, (plastic thudding) crashes, (camera clicking) and smashing.

(plastic thudding) Basically just making a mess of things.

I'm curious to see, let's do two eggs.

It really is all about embracing the chaos and I think that stems from who I am as a person.

Like that looks so cool, look at this.

I don't like to shy away from chaos, not that I want to invite it into my life but I think all too often, we as a society wanna make everything look pretty and everything's fine.

Mm, this one's good.

That series allows me to explore the chaos.

And I'd like to think that it also invites other people to explore it for themselves.

Okay.

- Go.

(camera clicking and plastic thudding) - Carnage.

- Love it.

Love it.

- To make it okay that everything isn't perfect, everything isn't always pretty, really, we're just all giant messes.

Thanks, boys.

(soft music) Lemme bring in, we left one out here, so.

Okay, Plexi.

(crew chattering indistinctly) These two ramps that I made out of two by fours.

The whole idea behind them was to be able to throw two different food items, liquid down them, and into each other and so that they would crash in the middle and create something explosive and exciting and unexpected.

(plastic thudding) It was a lot of trial and error.

- [Assistant] Ready.

(plastic thudding) - You got a little lift.

- Yeah, but... (camera clicking and plastic thudding) - [Assistant] Oh, what the heck happened?!

- [Isabella] Bummer.

Everybody ready?

- Yep.

- Yeah?

- Three, two, one, go.

(camera clicking and plastic thudding) - Oh, they were like.

- Oh!

- They were like half an inch.

- Oh, no.

(camera clicking and plastic thudding) - Oh, they touched.

- Touched!

- They touched!

- We got a bowl touch!

- I definitely try to compost everything after we've used it.

♪ And as we use it, you beautiful egg ♪ A big thing for me in this with this project in particular is reusing everything, as much as I can.

Found a little lonely macaroon back there.

- Good, good.

Okay.

- Which is very different from a traditional food shoot that's plated and needs to look perfect.

(soft music) My dad who was a filmmaker gave me a camera and thankfully both parents were very encouraging to pursue my love of the arts.

(whistling) Photography just really allowed me to articulate myself in a way that it was just very accessible, and there were just so many subjects to explore.

(soft music continues) With lighting.

Choosing subjects.

(camera clicks) I think food visually was just very exciting and allowed me to explore.

(camera clicks) It's just a very versatile subject.

(upbeat music) Most of my work until recently was commercial, that's kind of just the avenue that I understood and I knew how to get my work out there.

And then during, COVID, I was able to make these big old prints and I was able to put a show together of my work.

And that's kind of directed me in a more fine art direction.

(upbeat music continues) (camera clicks) (upbeat music) My Kaleidoscope series, I started out with a completely different idea.

(upbeat music continues) I went to the Asian market and there were all of these things that I had just never seen before and gave me a completely different color pallette to work with.

And spent a long time in the market staring at everything like a weirdo just like, you know, looking at every angle.

(upbeat music continues) They're not kaleidoscopes in the sense that they're a repeating pattern.

(upbeat music continues) But there is a lot of like precision and perfection that goes into placing every little thing where I want it to be.

(camera clicks) (upbeat music continues) It really is about seeing how they're all going to fit together and it's almost as if they have a perfect place, but I just haven't figured it out yet.

(upbeat music continues) The kaleidoscope series feels like I only have to think about and look at this like, each element as I'm working with it.

I do step back and look at the big picture, but I can really lose myself in it.

(upbeat music continues) Post processing for the kaleidoscope, it might be like a hair I didn't see or a crumb I don't want there.

(camera clicks) I guess mostly retouching of it.

(upbeat music continues) Oh man, that one's so great.

But for the other project, "Splashes and Smashes", it is a combining of images.

I'm seeing elements from different photos that I want to see together.

(tongue clicks) Should this one go on top?

Yes.

(tone dings) (tone dings) (tone dings) (upbeat music) Not to toot my own horn, but it's been really great and people who do like my work, are really excited about it and give me a lot of compliments which is always nice.

You wanna try it again?

Yeah, I do want people to embrace the chaos in their own lives and the world around us.

Ready?

- Ready.

(camera clicking and plastic thudding) And know that the chaos is okay.

- [Assistant] That's freaking funny.

- Sometimes I do feel like I'm here to let people know like they're okay just the way they are.

(camera clicking) Perfectly imperfect.

- [Assistant] Go!

(camera clicking) - [Isabella] Yeah!

(crew cheering)