Below are some images and the actual pages from the just-published Spring Style Issue of Esquire Magazine (March, 2011.) This was my first job for them and I was stoked to spend the early morning hours shooting the overwhelming process of cooking breakfast for the 5,000+ students at the Army's West Point Academy in upstate New York. We arrived at 2:30 AM and the multiple enormous kitchens were already alight with activity. Aside from the clockwork-like logistics and the multitude of tireless staff, the meal itself is a spectacle to behold. Though the preparation takes over four hours, the meal is consumed by the entire student body in under eight minutes - from entering the dining hall in formation (see below,) to eating, to rising and leaving in an equally organized and seamless fashion - there is nothing left to spontaneity. It was over before we really had a chance to admire it. The blueberry pancakes were outstanding.
4 chefs on either side of the wall (at left) simultaneously pour and flip pancakes for hours before sunrise.
One of the early morning chefs.
Coffee dispensers for the cadets - this is only half of them.
Industrial-sized bags of flour in the Cake/Bread Department, deep in the basement kitchen.
A group of cadets approaches the entrance to the dining hall in formation as the next group follows in the distance. This was just after 6AM.
The process is non-stop as there is an entire adjoining room dedicated to giant food-warmers, by now mostly full of blueberry pancakes.
The doors to the dining hall.
The staff places the food before the seated cadets, working from the giant, rolling warmers visible in the aisle in the middle/left of the frame.
The aftermath.
The pages from Esquire (click to enlarge.)
... and a PDN Feature about financing your equipment - a photo from my Coal Miners series on the left and a lengthy quote on the right (click to enlarge and read.)
1 comment:
Nice work Brad! I was really happy to see your photo in the PDN. :)
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