Spicy Bitter by Anna-Sophia John

Spicy Bitter is a study of radicchio, unfolding as a vibrant collage of its many forms. With images by Anna-Sophia John exploring its shapes and an essay by Logan Brown as a response, this book is a dialogue between colour, texture, and obsession.

Spicy Bitter, a self-published book by London-based photographer Anna-Sophia John and graphic designer Riccardo Carrara, delves into the vibrant world of radicchio through a series of striking still life images. The duo’s collaboration transforms this simple vegetable into a visual study. It is not mere admiration but an obsessive investigation, a prolonged engagement with something as seemingly mundane as a radicchio until it transcends its own identity. The repetition of angles, close-ups, and distortions resists resolution, transforming the vegetable into something alien and unfamiliar.

The book’s layout enhances this theme, with varying page sizes and unexpected juxtapositions that reflect the natural, unpredictable flow of the vegetable. These design choices not only emphasize the visual impact of the images but also create a sense of surprise and discovery throughout the book. Spicy Bitter becomes more than just a collection of photographs; it is a dialogue between form, colour, and texture - inviting viewers to engage with both the subject and the creative process in new and meaningful ways.  This relentless scrutiny raises larger questions about perception itself. Is this work truly about the vegetable, or is it about what happens when a subject is examined to the brink of abstraction?