#Pizzainthewild is the Best Thing You’ll See Today

Okay, picture this. You’re out running errands or going for your daily jog and you find yourself entering extreme hunger mode. Your stomach signals your impending crankiness with a steady stream of growls. You see something up ahead. Something that doesn’t quite belong. It’s round. It’s got…polka dots, maybe? Is it a mirage? No, can’t be. Oh my god..is it? It is! PEPPERONI PIZZA?!

I’d imagine this is the reaction of anyone lucky enough to encounter photographer Jonpaul Douglass’s latest project, #pizzainthewild. The basic idea is capturing images of real pizza placed on random things all over Los Angeles. Douglass was inspired by a wall in his neighborhood covered in graffiti that one day had a random pizza tag in the middle of it. He found it so funny and out of place that he wanted to go outside the box (um #foodpun) and put a pepperoni pizza in an unexpected environment.

The series wasn’t that simple to create though. Douglass explains, “For my first test shot, I just had a pepperoni pizza delivered and went around my neighborhood putting it on stuff. I quickly realized that having the pizza sliced wasn’t the way to go. I wanted a pizza that looked more graphical with a nice separation between the cheese and pepperoni. Basically what I wanted was what I call ‘Ninja Turtle pizza,’ because the look of the pizza in those cartoons was perfect.” In fact, the winning brand for the #TMNT-style pizza turned out to be Little Caesars!

The series has received an overwhelmingly positive response and the first thing Douglass realized, was that “lots of people feel very passionate about pizza.” Truth + food = beauty. That’s the lesson we learned today.

For more photos and videos from Jonpaul’s #pizzainthewildseries, follow @jonpauldouglass on Instagram.