Kevin DeMaria, former Art Director at Gourmet Magazine took photographs of his final days at the magazine (here).
I almost wrote a piece not too long ago about food magazines because I’d unsubscribed to Gourmet but then discovered that having access to millions of recipes online is really a pain in the ass and what you need is an editor and some beautiful photographs to get your mouth watering so I resubscribed. Too bad Si killed it off. I hope they bring it back someday.
via, Will Steacy Blog
13 Comments
Editing content is a big deal and getting bigger. Don’t you think?
I got my start with Romulo Yanes at Gourmet three years ago. He was one of the first photographers in New York to offer me a position as an assistant. I learned a lot in that studio and those test kitchens. I have fond memories of that place. I’m sad to see it go.
Interesting, I did the same thing at Jupiter: http://altphotoimages.com/Fine_Art/Pages/redundant.html
First of many that will fall…?
How sad! Those pictures are heartbreaking.
My best to everyone at the magazine! You’ll be fine.
Don’t even get me started on Conde Nast and its practice of diluting its own market share by offering multiple magazines aimed at the same readers and advertisers. Their strategy was a disaster waiting to happen — as soon as the economy turned the house of cards collapsed. One top-quality magazine is better than multiple mediocre ones. We’ll see if they now invest in Bon Appetit to make it better.
Vacated office space looks universally bleak. I wish DeMaria had done a Bill Egglestonesque shot of an empty (or past-prime contents) refrigerator in the Gourmet offices. That probably would have said it all.
As usual, it’s a shame to see good people lose their jobs because of management ineptitude.
think I said it before but I really LOVED the photography in Gourmet. Actually not so much in the current issue I saw today. But I thought in a lot of the issues they had just great ” I wanna live like that” food photography. Real food, dark athmospheric colours, great locations. Best food mag ever!
Apart from the story behind, those pictures of the empty offices and co-workers are very good.
Sitting in a doctor’s office last summer, with my ill father in Paramus, NJ. I discovered GOURMET. The photography transported me to another place. They had some superb ways of shooting food, by not hiring “food photographers” but just good shooters.
Conde-Nast closing down GOURMET is like General Motors deciding to axe Cadillac and keeping Buick, Pontiac and Chevy.
@Andy,
As the song goes from The Three Penny Opera,
“(They know) the price of everything & the value of nothing.”
Well it is a song about capitalism.
Great job Kevin!
hope you Amy, Richard, Megan, Hollis and everyone else land on their feet. :)
I just sent some sympathy and quick thanks to Amy K. for a shoot back in 2004. Email accounts are already dead, o if you read it here.—thanks (to everyone that put it together.)
It’s unfortunate that Gourmet has to be a casualty of the industry’s lack of imagination. Or maybe it’s a lack on the part of the money people. But at some point, someone will come up with a business model that will make magazines and newspapers viable. It probably just won’t be delivered on paper. But there is a need for such publications as Gourmet, but they probably won’t be published in the forms we have come to know.
Christ, if you’re looking for a quality recipe magazine you will not go wrong with Cooks Illustrated. Their online component is one of the few subscriptions I will pay for among all else.
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