I absolutely love it when two different genres or creative disciplines come together to create something unique and interesting. I find it to be one of the best ways to get out of a creative slump and test out random ideas. Say, mixing up food photography and portraiture? You’ll be surprised at how fun it can get!

A past project of Missouri-based photographer Brandon Voges perfectly demonstrates how well these mashups can work. If you’re struggling to refill your creative juices or just want to explore different ways to approach photography, I’m sure it will give you some cool ideas!

Faces meet food

In 2014, Voges’ photography studio, Bruton Stroube Studios, did a project with marketing agency The Marlin Network for a breakfast event at an annual food industry show. Aptly dubbed “Donut Doubles,” the portrait project involved a collaboration with donut shop Strange Donuts. I’m sure that from these bits of information alone, you can tell it’s bound to be something good!

I really liked the idea of shooting portraits that look like the donuts they’re paired with. It takes a stroke of genius to come up with a concept like this, which Voges and his team nailed in their eye-catching final product. The faces and their food counterparts look incredibly similar thanks to the power of visual suggestion. Even the color palette was carefully and cleverly put together!

Mashup made mouthwatering

While food photography was definitely the main driver behind “Donut Doubles,” the project was also meant to point toward a gathering of people from the food industry. So, I can see how putting the two elements together in a fun mashup project worked well to serve its intended purpose.

I especially love how they made use of several visual elements to communicate the project’s message. How the similarities between the human and food subjects were visually presented — from the color palette to the representations of the features — is also impressive. To top it all off, the pairing was completed with a diptych — an art in two parts — and it couldn’t be more fitting to deliver the message.

“Donut Doubles” is a great example of how putting together two mostly unrelated themes, topics or mediums can lead to something original and unexpectedly engaging. Hopefully, if you’re out of ideas for your next food photography project, you can find inspiration in this clever and mouthwatering mashup!

Don’t forget to check out Brandon Voges’ Behance portfolio and Bruton Stroube Studios to see more of his work.

All photos by Brandon Voges. Used with Creative Commons permission.