Much like "The Uncomfortable Series" from KK Studio, San Francisco-based photographer Lawrie Brown's play on food design is a slightly unsettling look at the food we interact with on a daily basis. Her series—aptly named "Colored Food"—features all kinds of familiar cuisines covered in colorful latex paint. Blue chicken, green corn, cereal floating in a mysterious pink liquid—every single one zeros in on some nerve that I just can't place.

For those who were around—and heaven forbid, might have even enjoyed—Heinz's unfortunately named colored ketchup ("EZ Squirt"), this vibrant ice cream topping may bring back a few memories:

For being such a simple twist, this series explores a deeper connection between the way we interact with food and the various manufacturing and processing methods it goes through before it makes an appearance on our tables. She explains on her website:

These photographs comment on the social, visual and psychological aspects of food. I am involved in a photographic investigation of what food people eat, what those foods materially consist of, what they look like, and what statements foods make about our society. Of concern to me is what food actually looks like photographically and how it psychologically affects the viewer when isolated within its natural context.

The concept of an object, which feels of home, and is found in the home, as being acceptable, identifies with the food manufacturer's notion that if the product is visually appealing, there should be no question of its edibility by the user. These forceful images veil this underlying social statement in the same way the manufacturer of food conceals its intended use in order to stress its visual qualities. It is this normally accepted emphasis on visual importance that I am examining in my photographic food.

Most color-food combinations we don't see at the grocery store—but fruity, colored drinks? Now those some of us may know very well:

Check out more work from Brown on her website.

Via Laughing Squid