FEATURED ARTIST: JIM SULLIVAN
This month at Atelier Manna we are honored to be showcasing the incredible photography of our friend and long-time collaborator, Jim Sullivan. His work in capturing the life in and around the world of restaurants strikes a deep and resonant chord with us as life-long veterans of the industry. Read on to hear directly from Jim, and purchase his highly anticipated new book Kitchen Verité - available now.
Girl Power!
Jim: “Photographed during service at the Michelin Star restaurant Le CouCou in NYC. I took this image at the end of 2019 right before the pandemic hit in 2020. What stood out to me when I took this image is that the kitchen was run by all women. Historically, professional kitchens have been a ‘boys club’; so the fact that this acclaimed French Restaurant was (at the time) run by all women was amazing to me. And to top it off, they are all wearing Toques (the traditional, tall chef’s hat pictured above) which you rarely see anymore.
BKB
Jim: “Photographed in this image are Chefs Jerome Bocuse, Thomas Keller, and Daniel Boloud. This candid image was taken at Addison (***) during a break at an event back in 2018. Stumbling upon these legends of the culinary world as they sat together for a quiet moment was a very surreal moment.”
Frenchie
Jim: “This was taken in Paris in 2017 at the restaurant Frenchie (*). Throughout the course of service I took many frames in the kitchen, but here I decided to step outside to have a different vantage point through the window. This ended up unintentionally becoming one of my favorites from the session.”
Speedmaster
Jim: “This picture was taken right here at Atelier Manna, during a busy Sunday service. I hung out near the chef’s counter where they bring all the dishes to finish plating, and waited for a break in the action. I captured this photo of Chef Andrew wiping his brow after a heavy push, and named the photo after his favorite watch you see him wearing here in this picture.”
Jim Sullivan is a San Diego-based photographer and director, a graduate of The Art Institute of California with a degree in Culinary Arts, and a Leica photographer/Leica Akademie Instructor.
His most recent book, ‘Kitchen Verité,’ is a long-term project photographed over a nine-year period, exclusively using 35mm black and white film. Documenting the life in and around the professional kitchen, Jim’s captivating images in Kitchen Verité transport the viewer to unseen moments from the world’s most revered kitchens; from the demure and intimate to the frenzied and hardened. The limited-edition book is available now at Kitchen Verité’s website.
When he’s not immersed in his craft, he enjoys the simple pleasures of home cooking and spending quality time with his family and their beloved French Bulldog, Mochi.
