He went on a whim at first, David Williams said, just booked a flight from New York City, where he lives, to Springfield, Ill. He took his camera and giant flash to the Illinois State Fair. This was last summer, between freelance assignments, and the start of a project that Mr. Williams, 29, says will last at least another year: documenting the food culture of America’s state fairs.
“Fairs provide this great escape from everyday life,” he said. “And I wanted to capture that, the joy of it” on plates and sticks, at the end of forks, in cones. Mr. Williams spent eight hours on the midway that first day, looking for moments, capturing happiness and a little darkness, too.
The Illinois trip led to others: harvest-time visits to Maryland and Delaware, to Minnesota and upstate New York, to Texas, two- and three-day visits, long hours on the hunt. Mr. Williams wants to get to Washington State next summer, Florida this winter. Maine and Alaska await.
“I look for humor,” he said, “and honesty, too. I like how there’s nothing really corporate about a fair — there are just people wandering around, eating and having fun.” Click, flash. The resulting images depict American excess and pride alike, innocence, beauty, a kind of deep-fried exceptionalism. They do not wink.
An earlier version of the slide show accompanying this article misstated the location of the Minnesota State Fair. It is in St. Paul, not Minneapolis.
Sam Sifton is the food editor, the founding editor of NYT Cooking and a columnist for The New York Times Magazine. He has also served as the national editor, the restaurant critic and the culture editor. @SamSifton • Facebook
