Dan Bannino is an artist, but he doesn't want you to call him that—"as Andy Warhol once said, 'labels are for cans'," he tells The Daily Beast. Yet, though he prefers not to belong to any specific classification, Bannino has produced creative pieces his entire life. The Italian born-and-raised photographer who lives in the Turin countryside has focused a portion of his work on still lifes. His "Everyday Objects" series features items like french fries and Coca Cola dipped in gold, while "Soapy and Wet" images show the likes of sponges and brillo pads arranged alongside brightly-colored, geometric patterns. Bannino's most recent project, however, stems from his "fascination and obsession with food." Inspired by the "feelings, colors, shapes, and light" of artists including "Caravaggio, Leonardo da Vinci, Goya, [and] Rembrandt," his series, "Still Diet" features a variety of celebrity fad diets, ranging from Gwyneth Paltrow's strict detox to Beyonce's master cleanse, as well as historical diets, like Lord Byron's regimen for a romantic poet. "I’ve tried to capture the beauty that lies in this terrible constriction of diets and deprivation," Bannino explains, "giving them the importance of an old master's painting. My aim was to show how this weirdness hasn’t changed, even since the 15th century... People always want to know more about [celebrities] and [are] looking for something that shows their vulnerability: diets are something that makes them more 'human'...We're all human beings, even if we're sitting on the throne of England or if our husband is Jay Z!"
Left: Henry VIII, "The Banquet Diet:" Pork, chicken, rabbit and lamb's meat. Fruits and wine (Water was consider unhealthy).
Dan Bannino
Vegetables (carrots, broccoli, onions, chickpeas, and lentils), almonds, pathè made with nuts and lentils, room temperature water with lemon, and/or green tea.
Dan Bannino
Alcohol & cigarettes.
Dan Bannino
Lemon Juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, salt, and laxative herbal tea.
Dan Bannino
Nine eggs in all the possible shapes, a glass of wine, and a small tank with a shark.
Dan Bannino
Potatoes drenched in vinegar, poetry, and soda water.
Dan Bannino
Big box of exotic fruits (including pineapples, strawberries, grapes, cranberries, blueberries, oranges, mangos, and avocados) shipped via airfreight, which he uses to make fresh smoothies everyday, a big tank of milk, which he uses to bathe in, and vitamin drops.
Dan Bannino
400ml of solid food or eggs and 500ml wine.
Dan Bannino
Unlimited amount of cabbage soup to mix with other vegetables.
Dan Bannino
