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Longest Night

2012-02-02T14:35:18Z

In December in Gowanus, an event called Longest Night transformed an industrial space into a performance venue. My friend Brian worked on video-mapping used there and invited me to the party. It's been a while since I've been to an all out, middle of nowhere, art event and I have to say it was a lot of fun. I hadn't planned on taking photos at all, but after seeing the aerialist flying above us all, I couldn't just leave my camera in the bag.

See more photos after the jump - I never caught her name, but if you know who she is, let me know in the comments. I'd love to see another performance like this.

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An evening with the Robicelli's

2012-02-01T21:15:13Z

Last night, I helped Brian of Eat This NY film his upcoming Valentine's Day webisode. You may remember when I filmed his Halloween episode last year. This time around, the stars of the show were Matt & Allison of Robicelli's who give Brian advice on love.

Check back on Eat This NY for the full video to go up next week. In the meantime, check out Matt's new tattoo, which was a part of the Ink Master series on Spike TV. See if up close after the jump.

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This Weekend: Bed-Stuy Crawl

2012-02-01T14:31:28Z

There's so much going on in Bed-Stuy these days. It seems like a month doesn't go by that a new bar or restaurant isn't opening up to much interest and curiosity of its neighbors.

My friends Alisha and Nicole and I are hosting a crawl of some of the neighborhood's new(ish) watering holes this weekend and I'd love for you to join us. For $25 you get discounts, deals and tastings as we make our way around the neighborhood.

Find out more information and buy tickets at the Bed-Stuy Crawl eventbrite page and keep up on the news on twitter by following #bedstuycrawl.

Self-Promotion: In The New York Times

2012-01-31T13:32:06Z

This is hardly news to anyone who follows me on Facebook, Twitter or even Pinterest, but I'm still excited two weeks later.

The above photo is my first to be published in The New York Times. It's of black truffle soup dumplings at Red Farm and, just in time for Chinese New Year, it got a fair amount of attention, getting reposted on Zagat and Gothamist.

It's a great milestone and helped me push through as I did five more shoots the following week. Onward.

New York Tech Meetup's SOPA Protest

2012-01-23T14:41:16Z

Unless you were stuck in a cave, you almost certainly heard about the proposed SOPA and PIPA bills and last Wednesday's day of protest all over the internet that it resulted in. If somehow you missed what the whole bill was about, see The Oatmeal's hilarious SOPA explanation. While websites all over the world were blacking out their pages in a new form of activism, the folks at New York Tech Meetup decided to take an old school approach and led a rally in front of the office building of New York's two Senators.

As with last year's Meetup with Mayor Bloomberg, NYTM brought me in to document the event. See some of the photos after the jump.

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Food/Work Preview: Dallis Brothers Coffee Tour

2012-01-20T20:18:13Z

Back in the fall, one of the Edible Brooklyn events I shot was "How to Roast," all about coffee. I met some of the folks from Dallis Brothers Coffee and we talked a bit about their roasting plant in Queens and I thought about going to photograph it one day for Food/Work. I ran into the folks from Dallis at one of the holiday markets last month and found out they do tours of the facility. It seemed like a good scouting expedition to figure out if it's something I might want to photograph more extensively. So, the first weekend of January, Tammi and I headed to the end of the A line to Ozone Park to see what it was all about. Check out some of the photos from the tour after the jump.

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When I signed us up for the tour and found out that it was three hours long, I couldn't fathom how there could be that much to say about coffee. It turned out there was. John, our guide, managed to keep us all engaged with an interesting talk about the history of the company, coffee 'cherries,' picking methods and sourcing.

He even demonstrated some of the process with a small coffee plant he's grown here in New York.

Of course, I was as interested in the visuals of the place as the stories. The equipment used to make coffee is arcane and beautiful.

For all the decals and logos and textures on espresso machines, they might as well be cars - some of them cost about the same from what I gather.

In contrast to the shiny chrome, other equipment was decidedly more blue collar. Huge industrial machines with buttons out of classic Star Trek.

The highlight of the tour for me was when John demonstrated the process of roasting the beans for us. As beans bounced around in the roaster, he regularly pulled a few out and sniffed them to determine how much more time they need.

The process was both interesting to learn about and fun to watch. I hope to return in the next month or two to spend more time photographing some of the action of a normal work day at Dallis.

Introducing Food/Work

2012-01-02T17:00:10Z

Food/Work - Images by clay williams

Happy New Year, folks. 2011 was packed with experiences and opportunities that I hope to build on for years to come. To begin, I'm launching a new photo project that I'm very excited about, called Food/Work.

Expanding on the Butchery project of the last few years and the kitchen shoots I've done in the last several months, Food/Work explores the real effort that gets food on our tables. Following the examples of Michael Harlan Turkell's Back of House series and my friend Donny's Foodaisance project, I want to call attention to the work that goes into cooking, preparing, cutting, cultivating and even killing the food that so many of us enjoy and obsess over.

Although the project will not be limited to Brooklyn, starting Wednesday, I'll be posting some photos on Nona Brooklyn every other week. The first post went up last month with photos of Emily Cavalier cooking dishes for November's Midnight Brunch supper club.

So, stay tuned. The slideshow above is just a preview of what's to come.

Food/Work: Ryan Farr at the Astor Center

2011-12-14T14:47:57Z

Ryan Farr is no stranger to the blog. I met the San Francisco butcher and chef at last year's Cochon 555, where, among other things, he deboned a pig's head and stuffed it with shoulder meat. Then, on a trip to SF, I managed to catch up with him briefly at his stand at the Ferry Building. One day, I hope to photograph him at work either in his cooking space or in one of the hands-on butchering classes he offers at 4505 Meats.

Last week, he was in New York promoting his new book, Whole Beast Butchery, I caught up with him at a butchering demo he did at the Astor Center, where he took apart a whole lamb. Check out some of the photos from the evening after the jump.

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Cuzco: The open kitchen at Cicciolina

2011-11-30T13:20:04Z

While the eating options were a bit limited in Aguas Calientes, Cuzco was an entirely different story. One night, while looking for a place to grab a drink, we stumbled upon Cicciolina, an Italian place hidden in a courtyard of shops a block or two away from the main square.

We may have come for a drink, but as soon as I saw that our spot at the bar was directly in front of the open kitchen, it was pretty clear that we'd be spending hours there. See cooks, prep, pasta making and cocktail shaking after the jump.

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First, the pisco sours. The frothy cocktail is famous in these parts, so we had to give them a try. Topped with almost a meringue of shaken egg whites and sprinkled with bitters. Historically, I haven't been much of a liquor drinker, but I wasn't going to miss this local delicacy. The texture of the foam and the sweet, sour and tangy flavors over took any bite the pisco might have, regardless.

The more piscos I had, the more camera happy I got. Between the cocktail shaking and the action off to the left in the kitchen, I wanted to shoot it all. The bartender joked, "I'm going to be famous in your country" after all the photos I took.

This guy really fascinated both of us. He came up at one point with a blender pitcher, tossed a bunch of black, goopy stuff in there, mixed it all up and disappeared to the prep kitchen downstairs. Half an hour later, he brought up a huge wad of squid ink dough which he rolled out and cut right in front of us.

Interestingly, more than a few places where we dined in Peru made their own pasta, something I don't really expect here in the states, much less a place with a much smaller Italian history.

Pasta making is one of those things that I'm told is pretty straightforward, but always seems a little like magic to me. Watching him roll and re-roll and cut and hang all this gorgeous black pasta, didn't dissuade me of that. In fact, it made me hungry.

Honestly, seeing this plated a few times to go out to the dining room, I'm not sure anything could have stopped us from ordering it. Topped with a couple shrimp and tossed in a cream sauce, it made an amazing dish.

Another day, we returned to Cicciolina for a rather tasty brunch before taking a ride into the Sacred Valley, but that's a story for another time.

I've always loved getting a look at all the energy that goes into a professional kitchen. Since I've gotten back from South America, I've had the fortune to spend more time in a few here in New York for an upcoming project. Stay tuned for more details.

Self-Promotion: Something I Ate - Tonight!

2011-11-18T14:15:27Z

Over the summer, I had the pleasure of photographing Something I Ate, an art and food event hosted by On Plate Still Hungry and Skimkim Foods. The dishes served included multilayered savory push pops, a set of brass knuckles made from watermelon and hanging hor d'oeuvres that were torched before serving. It was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to shooting the latest in the series tonight. Check out the Skimkim blog for more details on tonight's event and check out some of the photos from the summer party after the jump.

Something I Ate, November 18, 7-10pm. Acme Studios, 63 N 3rd Street, Williamsburg.

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Self-Promotion: An Edible Events recap

2011-11-16T13:31:28Z

I've kept busy since returning from South America in part by running around photographing events. Among the events that I've been shooting like Midnight Brunch, New York Tech Meetup and the Fleisher's Opening, I've also been brought on a number of times to shoot events for Edible Brooklyn and Edible Manhattan.

Check out some of the highlights after the jump.

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Back in September, I shot 'How To... Roast,' part of a monthly series of events demonstrating the ins and outs of food and drink. This one focused on coffee and discussed everything from how to roast your own beans to the way to make the perfect cup of coffee.

In October, Edible Escapes was a travel-themed event that took place in the amazingly gorgeous Angel Orensanz event space on the Lower East Side.

Finally, there was 'How To.. Milk It' the last of the series for the year. Focusing on dairy, it had talks on how cheese aging works, what flavors to pair with cheese and a demo on making butter.

As always, the events have been a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to seeing what they have planned for next year.

Self-Promotion: ScoutMob and the New York City Marathon

2011-11-09T14:08:00Z

When I started talking to the fine folks at Scout Mob about being a local scout for them, I think we all assumed that I'd be pitching stories about food. I certainly didn't expect it to be about a sporting event. Then I remembered the annual tradition Tammi and I have had for eight years now and it just sort of made sense.

Check out Today's Culture Hunter and see my photos from the 2011 New York City Marathon and a bit on how it turned into the ritual it has for us.

A walk through the cemetery. Recalling Recoleta for Halloween.

2011-11-02T14:10:52Z

Yes, Halloween is over and everyone's looking to either Thanksgiving or just going straight to Christmas, I've decided to linger a bit and look back. Two months ago, I was wandering the aisles of Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires enjoying a tranquility that is almost unheard of in my life or my city. The days and weeks and months since I've returned have been anything but calm - its been great and I hope to take some time to write about it - but it certainly hasn't been tranquil.

As the spiral into the holidays approaches, this week seemed like a good time to appreciate a moment of stillness. I'll be posting photos from Recoleta today on Twitter and for the rest of the week on Analog UltraClay.

Enjoy.

Finding Halloween candy with Eat This NY

2011-10-31T20:58:02Z

Brian Hoffman, a fellow contributor to Midtown Lunch, hosts regular videos on his site, Eat This NY. The other day, I joined him to film his Halloween video, which profiled artisanal candy shop, Papabubble. It was my first time seriously shooting video and thus quite a learning experience. We also got to geek out watching them create some of the unique handmade candy right on site.

As I'm incapable of watching people work with food without photographing them, of course I took a few stills along the way. Check them out after the jump.

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Just past the cashier, papabubblers(?) roll and pull still warm candy.

They came out into this long candy rods, each a foot or two long.

With what looks like a paint scraper, they chipped off piece by piece of custom made candy.

These were a special set being put together for Barney's.

The back of the shop looked like a mad scientist's lab with all the beakers and funky tubes and such.

After it was all over, I took home a souvenir of Mexican candy that's both spicy and sweet.

Butchery: Fleisher's Brooklyn is open for business

2011-10-26T19:25:58Z

Fleisher's, the butchering mecca that inspired so much of the whole animal cooking that we've seen in the last few years has come to Brooklyn. The new shop is located in Park Slope on 5th Avenue off Sackett. I've been a big fan of theirs since I photographed their Pig to Pork event last year.

The grand opening of the new shop was last week and co-owner Jessica Applestone asked me to photograph the big day. Borough President and Brooklyn cheerleader Marty Markowitz was on hand to celebrate the big day.