Food photography or the underworld? Who knows. Meet Nadege Meriau.

Well this is ridiculously incredible. “Oh yeah I’ve just casually managed to turn some food into what looks like the seventh circle of hell.” Sure. Nadege’s absolutely one-of-a-kind artwork takes meticulous food photography to a whole new level as she transforms food and natural matter into strange grottos and dwellings. Almost resembling a John Martin painting of the underworld, Nadege’s camera takes us on a wild journey from the fruit and veg section of the supermarket to a sci-fi parallel universe.

Olivier Richon, head of photography at the RCA where Nadege studied, sums up her work beautifully: “If in fairy tales, houses are made of sweets, Nadege Meriau does the reverse, transforming the edible into a dwelling, making architectures of fibers, vegetables and porous matter. This is an architecture of the digestible, made of curves and unexpected textures, that recall the art of the rocaille, or when a grotto is endowed with a viscosity that reminds us of a digestive apparatus”