Arizona-based photographer Ernie Button creates wonderful miniature landscapes using breakfast cereal. Using a variety of cereals based on their shapes, colors and textures, Ernie creates primarily desert scenes combined with photographs of actual Arizona skies as backdrops giving the final image an odd sense of reality.
Growing up in a poor family, photographer and Arizonian native Ernie Button remembers how breakfast cereal was a luxury item that barely made an appearance at his table. On a trip to the store as an adult, he browsed cereal isle and with all of its colorful packaging, novelties, and high sugar content, he realized that food had become a form of entertainment. He also noticed that the more ‘adult’ cereals made from fiber or bran resembled the hues and textures of his home state.
“The project started out purely aesthetic, I have no ill will against cereals or the companies that make them,” he says, “that stuff tastes great but the older I get, the more I’m like, should I be eating this?”
“It is apparent that cereal is not just for breakfast anymore. Cereal has evolved into pop culture objects instead of just nutritious corn pops. I've had the good fortune of exhibiting “Cerealism” in many different cities around the United States and even got to show the work in China”, the artist told The Daily Mail.
“Most people enjoy the work and it hits them on multiple levels from merely enjoying the imagery to thinking more about nutrition and what we eat. I get the most enjoyment when people get an "a-ha" moment and they realise it's not a "real", outside landscape but something constructed out of cereal.”
Also see the works of Carl Warner, Ju Duoqi and Matthew Albanese
My breakfasts never look this artistic. Wonderful fun!
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