Back in early 2010, she and Fiorella Valdesolo, who met when they both worked at Nylon, felt compelled to make a magazine looking at the relationship between food and music, food and art, and food and film.
“We were always going out eating, meeting up to cook together or talking about food, so the idea behind Gather Journal came rather naturally,” recalls Outland, who also previously worked for Martha Stewart Living, and who is now the magazine’s creative director. As new freelancers, the pair wanted their new venture to be a space for experimentation and innovation.
The issues, which feature several recipes for each course of a meal, are conceived around abstract themes. The first one was titled Float; the third, an homage to summer films, was called Rough Cut. The fifth, titled Caravan, published in spring/summer 2014, was inspired by the landscape and culture of deserts. It carried a description of the dessert section that’s worth highlighting, for the insight it gives to Gather Journal’s approach to the visuals.
“The Badlands of Arizona’s Painted Desert cast their chromatic reach over a 160-mile expanse. A vast spectrum of coral and crimson, rose and rust, dusty lavender and darkened plum, it’s a living canvas.”
These colours inspired recipes for ombré crêpe cake, marbled halvah, ice-cream, sorbet and granola terrine, and orange anise sand cake, and Martyn Thompson – a multidisciplinary artist, whose images are usually pictorial – shot the series.
“Since we look for a different take on food, we mostly work with photographers whose creative practices lie elsewhere,” explains Outland. “Hopefully, it’s an exciting challenge for them. We try to give them a wide berth and a lot of space to explore. We want to be about freedom, not constraints.”
“We met while working at Condé Nast together and I’ve been following his career ever since. When we decided to launch Gather Journal, I immediately thought of him. I wanted him to bring what he was doing with his fine art photography to food.”
At the time he was working with a very defined palette, mostly strong sherbet colours, and “we went from there”, says Outland. “Most of our conversations ahead of the shoot were very loose,” she explains. “I don’t map out images beforehand. Theo Vamvounakis and Maggie Ruggiero came into the studio to help with styling; neither of them had met Grant before so we simply spent the day playing together.”
Working with a recurrent team of photographers, and prop and food stylists, Gather Journal has developed a distinct visual identity that is cinematic and often highly stylised. In the eighth issue, themed Origin, the seafood dishes photographed by Nicholas Cope seemed to be floating in the ocean, and the magazine’s take on spiced burrata, clafoutis and gingerbread look like celestial bodies.
“We get a lot of story pitches, but we’ve never taken any because all of our content is created according to the theme,” says Outland. “Still, I appreciate it when people send me their work, especially if it’s a personal project. Today, since everyone and their mother is shooting food and sharing it on Instagram, it’s paramount for those who want to work in this industry to develop their own voice and eye.”
Her regular roster includes Will Anderson, Gentl and Hyers, Stephen Kent Johnson and Keirnan Monaghan, but Outland says she does lurk on the image-sharing platform looking for inspiration and new talent. Though she knew her work before, for example, Olivia Bee’s account really caught Outland’s eye. “It’s what drew me in – her feed is what made me feel like I could do something with her.”
And so, in the summer of 2014, she commissioned the 22-year- old wunderkind to create psychedelic portraits of desserts. “When I called her, she was very excited about branching out,” she says. “I really appreciate such enthusiasm, because getting out of one’s comfort zone can be a risky thing to do.”
Afterall, she’s speaking from experience, because this is exactly what she and Valdesolo did four years ago when they launched Gather Journal – and it paid off.
