Using his iPhone to photograph what every iPhoneographer can only dream of capturing, Jonpaul Douglass captures pizzas in the wild. Using pepperoni pizza to add a little extra something special to his already spot on square images, @jonpauldouglass' Instagram feed will either make you hungry or happy, or both.
We, at Global Yodel, got so obsessed with this project we decided to have a little chat with the mastermind.
Global Yodel: Tell us about your Pizza in the Wild series.
Jonpaul Douglass: One day I was walking in my neighborhood in LA and I passed by a wall that was always covered in new graffiti. This particular time the wall had a simple monotone pattern and someone had tagged a pepperoni pizza right in the center of it. I thought it was very humorous and I did snap a photo of it. You can see this photo a ways back in my Instagram feed. I was so tickled by that image I thought it would be even more humorous to put real Pizzas on things through out the city and photograph them.
GY: Do you use real pizzas?
JD: I do. In the beginning I wanted what I called "Ninja Turtle Pizza"... which is a pizza that looks like it does in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. Yet I found that most pizzas these days do not look like that. It took me a couple of weeks but I finally decided that Little Caesars pizza was the closest to "Ninja Turtle Pizza" I was going to get. This was fortunate for me because a large Little Caesars pizza is only $5 a pie.
GY: How many have you gone through and what do you do with those glorious pizzas afterwords?
JD: I really haven't gone through as many pizzas as one might think. I would guess 20 pizzas at most. Much of time I will pick up two pizzas and then after I run around town photographing them I will put them in my fridge in case I get another opportunity. If you look at the series you can see that some pizzas are fresh and some look to be days old. This works because some situations call for a floppy pizza and some call for a stiff pizza. I also must admit that there has been times where a used pizza gets eaten anyhow. It's tough to ride around with a freshly baked pizza and not be tempted.
GY: Place you live?
JD: Los Angeles, CA
GY: Can you sum Los Angeles?
JD: I live right outside of downtown LA in an area considered to be Echo Park. My home is up on a hill that overlooks the LA skyline as well as Dodger stadium. My neighborhood is home to many peacocks that are very entertaining to watch. Echo Park is quite the eclectic area that is centrally located in LA making it a great jumping off point for traveling within LA.
GY: If someone was visiting, what must they do?
JD: I think Los Angeles is a tough city to appreciate in a short visit. It takes a while to really appreciate all that it has to offer since there is such a variety of things to experience. There really is something for every type of person. One my favorite activities I've experienced since I've lived here was CicLAvia. This is an event where parts of the cities roads are shut down and taken over by thousands on bicycles. It is surreal to ride around Los Angeles with virtually no cars in sight.
Check out the amazing Pizza in the Wild series in the slideshow below. And be sure to visit Global Yodel to read the full interview and see the complete photo series.
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