Shea Evans

Shea Evans, the cover artist for Winter 2015, worked as a chef for years before segueing into professional food and lifestyle photography—expanding his passion for food culture from the kitchen to the page. It’s this unique perspective, and passion for all things food, that drives Evans to make authentic food imagery, to show beauty not with shellac and shoe polish but with fresh ingredients captured right at the moment they were meant to be eaten.

While most of his work involves creating imagery for restaurants, cookbooks, editorial clients and other food businesses, he has a small but growing following for his abstract food images, a series he calls “Deconstructed Flavor.”

One night while making a leek and scallop dish, Evans noticed the similar shapes but contrasting patterns between the ingredients, which inspired a photograph (seen above). This started him on a path to explore striking arrangements with the ingredients of other recipes, from cocktails to hot cakes to pork chops to gazpacho.

With a new series of prints, Evans had his first show in San Francisco before the prints moved to Lake Tahoe and then Burlington, Vermont. Clients enjoy these pieces in the kitchen, dining area and other food spaces.

You can find more of his work at SheaEvans.com and on Instagram and Twitter at @sheaevansphoto.