Here’s proof that you art what you eat...

10:41am Friday 18th August 2006

WHILE most people can't even remember what they had for breakfast, opera singer Christopher Gillett could tell you exactly what he ate at every meal last year.

The 48-year-old, of Woolley Street, Bradford on Avon, has created a collage of more than 2,500 photographs on 12 panels of everything he ate during 2005.

The work is currently featuring in an exhibition on the theme of journals at Ale & Porter Arts in Bradford.

Mr Gillett said he had the idea to record every meal and snack he ate after taking pictures of various special meals.

"I'd take pictures of nice meals in nice places then I started taking them of cruddy meals in cruddy places," he said.

"I was in Los Angeles having a terrible meal of a burger with chips and a soda. The picture just summed up the environment I was in so well and I just thought it would be interesting to do it all the time.

"When I see each meal I can think of what I was doing and feeling at that time.

Mr Gillett, who has been an opera singer for about 27 years, travels around the world to perform and so often eats out.

He said he had a mixed reaction from people who saw him photographing all his food.

"Some people thought I was nuts. If I was on a plane next to a complete stranger I would pretend I was looking at pictures of the trip as I discreetly took a photo.

"I did a concert in May and at the reception I was on a table with Douglas Hurd and other grandiose people. Everyone seemed fascinated by the whole thing. It did make a good conversation piece."

He had to overcome problems like forgetting his camera and problems with his memory card to make sure he had a record of everything he ate while the task also meant he lost weight.

"I'm very fond of food but if I couldn't photograph it, I couldn't eat it. I'd lost a stone by July. I had to think, was it worth getting the camera out? Also, I had to think did I want everyone to see I'd eaten a particular meal? I said no to things like McDonald's meals as somebody might be scrutinising it later," he said.

At the end of the year he had the mammoth task of printing out the photographs, hand cutting them, gluing them to the panels and varnishing them.

The collage was entered into a nationwide arts competition organised by the Ale & Porter Art Gallery, run by Fiona Haser, and can be seen at the Silver Street gallery until September 30, where it is up for sale.

Other entries on display have been submitted from all over the UK and Ireland. A selection panel chose entrants Deirdre McGrath and Janice Myers to receive the £1,000 Bradcombe Award.

Members of the public can choose their favourite art piece in the exhibition for the £500 public choice award.

The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10am-5pm. Admission is free.

Theatre, Art & Cinema