from bags to make up, vitamins photo series reimagines real vegetables as everyday objects

blending food, fashion and contemporary design, the series transforms familiar objects into playful, surreal still life shots.

Eleonore B. edited by christina vergopoulou January 14, 2026 4 min

Vitamins by Eleonore Buschinger and Tabea Mathern

Vitamins is a collaborative project by designer Eleonore Buschinger’s Vitamin Color and photographer Tabea Mathern that explores vegetables as a material for contemporary image-making. Developed in New York, the series presents sculptural still lifes in which everyday objects, from fashion accessories to familiar household items, are reconstructed entirely from produce. By replacing industrial materials with organic ones, the project invites a new way of looking at both objects and food. The collaboration brings together two complementary practices: Vitamin Color’s long-standing exploration of vegetables as cultural and emotional objects, and Mathern’s bold, tactile approach to image-making that blends photography, set design, and visual storytelling.

from bags to make up, vitamins photo series reimagines real vegetables as everyday objects - 1 — Vitamins is a collaborative project by Vitamin Color and photographer Tabea Mathern | all images by Tabea Mathern

Vegetables are handcrafted to resemble everyday objects

Vitamin Color’s work by designer Eleonore Buschinger is driven by a broader mission to reframe vegetables as objects of joy, beauty, and cultural value rather than symbols of restriction or sacrifice. With a background spanning editorial, commercial, and artistic work, photographer Tabea Mathern’s imagery moves fluidly between reality and imagination, a sensibility that shapes the surreal yet precise worlds of Vitamins.

Throughout the collaborative visual art project, each object was designed and built by hand using real vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Carrots, radicchio, asparagus, citrus, roots, and leafy greens were cut, layered, pinned, stacked, and sculpted to create silhouettes that echo familiar designed objects. Because of their perishable nature, each piece existed only briefly, assembled, photographed, and then dismantled, making the process inherently fragile and time-sensitive.

from bags to make up, vitamins photo series reimagines real vegetables as everyday objects - 2 — in Vitamins, everyday objects are reinvented using vegetables as sculptural material

Vitamins blends still life, fashion imagery, and edible sculpture

The production followed a workflow closer to fashion and product photography than to food styling. Every composition was developed through physical prototyping, with attention to proportion, balance, and surface. Once a form was finalized, it was photographed immediately under controlled lighting to preserve freshness, color, and texture. The resulting images capture a fleeting moment in which organic matter temporarily performs as a design object. Through this process, Vitamins transforms vegetables into carriers of glamour, humor, and visual desire. By allowing produce to take on the roles of everyday objects, the project questions hierarchies of material value and invites viewers to reconsider what we choose to admire and what we usually overlook. The series was published as the Vitamins calendar, extending the project into a year-long visual format.

from bags to make up, vitamins photo series reimagines real vegetables as everyday objects - 3 — familiar forms are reimagined through unexpected textures, colors, and organic matter

from bags to make up, vitamins photo series reimagines real vegetables as everyday objects - 4 — vegetables are transformed into objects of desire, shifting their role from ingredient to icon

from bags to make up, vitamins photo series reimagines real vegetables as everyday objects - 5 — each composition plays with glamour, craft, and material illusion

from bags to make up, vitamins photo series reimagines real vegetables as everyday objects - 6 — what looks like product design is in fact entirely made from produce

from bags to make up, vitamins photo series reimagines real vegetables as everyday objects - 7 — the series blurs the boundaries between still life, fashion imagery, and edible sculpture

vitamins-eleonore-buschinger-tabea-mathern-vegetables-everyday-objects-designboom-1800-2 — the project sits at the intersection of food, fashion, and contemporary design

from bags to make up, vitamins photo series reimagines real vegetables as everyday objects - 8 — humor and fantasy are used to invite viewers to look at vegetables with new curiosity

from bags to make up, vitamins photo series reimagines real vegetables as everyday objects - 9 — the project proposes food as a design medium rather than a culinary one

from bags to make up, vitamins photo series reimagines real vegetables as everyday objects - 10 — Vitamins reframes vegetables as cultural objects, not just something to eat, but something to admire

project info:

name: Vitamins | @vitamin___color
designer: Eleonore Buschinger | @eleonorebuschinger

photographer: Tabea Mathern | @tabea.mathern

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.