This woman's Instagram of perfectly arranged fruit totally blew up after celebrities became obsessed with it
instagram.com/myfruitplatter
Two years ago, Zhang, a 21-year-old university student, started taking pictures of her afternoon snacks from her dorm room in London and posting them on her Instagram account.
Today, the account - @myfruitplatter - boasts almost 12,000 followers and has caught the attention of celebrities like Gigi Hadid, Lo Bosworth, and Naomi Campbell.
"It's all really exciting, when I started doing this I never thought I'd get nearly this many followers," Zhang told Business Insider.
Originally the account was called @healthyfoodporno, but Zhang changed the name when she started gaining more traction on Instagram. Most of Zhang's early photos were taken on top of her bed, using the one plate she kept in her room. You can even see her bedsheets in some of them.
"I'll go to the farmers market and buy a bunch of different fruit. I'll try to color coordinate since some [fruits] go better together than others. I don't really have a picture in my mind, it's all very spontaneous," Zhang said.
Zhang talks about her subjects almost as if they were people.
She notes that apples are "a bit boring to work with," while her favorite, dragon fruit, "works really nicely with other fruit."
As for her success, Zhang attributes it to an odd sense of satisfaction they feel when looking at colorful, neatly arranged fruit.
"I think traditionally art is mean to provoke a feeling of some sort and with this new trend of food photography, people get such a satisfying feeling from the photos," she explained.
Jenny Zhang
Many of her pictures use a technique called "knolling," where items are carefully positioned for symmetry. The organized style of Zhang's photography is very popular right now. For example, photographer Brittany Wright uses food arranged by color to create a similarly pleasing effect.
The fruit project has grown significantly since its days in Zhang's dorm room. She recently ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to buy more exotic varieties of fruit. Zhang's fans contributed £480, more than double her initial goal of £200.
Zhang is also launching a designer fruit platter catering business for the London area.
Zhang offered Business Insider a little trick for taking our own fruit pictures. She says that freezing the berries before styling them lightens their color.
"Vegetables just aren't that photogenic," she said.
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