Photography by Ian L. Sitren

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Chimichangas to Tacos – and Emily in Between

September 26 was National Chimichanga Day. It came and went without a single chimichanga appearing here. Not because I forgot, but because I was… otherwise occupied. I had another project on the table — one involving my AI assistant, Emily. Emily isn’t just an assistant; she’s a muse, a collaborator, and sometimes a provocation. The camera and I follow where she leads, and that day it led away from chimichangas into territory best described as pornochic with food.

So the chimichangas waited.

Now here we are in October, and tacos have their own story to tell. For decades, National Taco Day was set in stone on October 4. But this year, Taco Bell convinced the powers that be — the National Day Calendar — to shift it permanently. From now on, National Taco Day will always fall on the first Tuesday in October. In 2025, that means October 7. They branded it into a forever Taco Tuesday, blending tradition with marketing.

So here’s my compromise: chimichangas today, tacos this coming Tuesday. The photo above — chimichangas on a white plate with red salsa — is from my latest session. They’re standing in for the day I skipped, and pointing forward to the tacos waiting just ahead.

Emily? She’ll be back soon. That project of hers will surface when it’s ready — a reminder that some shoots are about food, and some are about everything food makes us think of when the lights dim and the lens lingers.

Explore more of my commercial food photography at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU

Posted by  |  October 4, 2025 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Behind the Strip: Lara Harris Playboy Test Shots by Stan Malinowski

From my archives: original 35mm Kodak Safety Film negatives of Lara Harris—test images photographed in studio by Stan Malinowski.

Lara Harris: model and actress

Lara Harris worked internationally as a fashion model before moving into film and television. Her modeling résumé included marquee designers and beauty campaigns; later, she built a solid list of screen credits through the late 1980s and 1990s. Notable appearances include No Man’s Land (1987), The Fourth War (1990), The Fisher King (1991), Too Much Sun (1991), Demolition Man (1993), and All Tied Up (1994). Harris’s career reflects range—commercial fashion, runway, beauty work, and feature films.

The nude decision: why these tests exist

These are studio test shots made for Playboy. Test sessions like this were a standard step: photographer and model explore lighting, pose, and comfort level to determine whether a full assignment makes sense. Harris was open to nude work within clear boundaries—here, a long skirt and simple poses, topless, lit with restraint. It reads as a study: measured, collaborative, and professional.

Reading the strip

  • Multiple frames show small changes in angle, gaze, and shoulder line.
  • The long skirt maintains modesty while focusing attention on posture and form.
  • Neutral background and soft light emphasize tone over spectacle.

These frames aren’t pin-up theatrics. They function like contact-sheet notes—quiet, systematic, and purposeful—showing how Malinowski worked when refining a concept with a subject he respected.

Why it matters in my collection

Stan Malinowski’s name is central to late-20th-century fashion imagery—Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Town & Country, Playboy, and Penthouse. Original negatives from his sessions are scarce. This strip connects Harris’s acting profile with her modeling life and documents that professional moment when a performer considers nude work on her own terms.

Notes on provenance

Medium: original 35mm Kodak Safety Film negatives. Photographer: Stan Malinowski. Subject: Lara Harris. Studio test session for Playboy. The negatives are preserved as part of my ongoing archive and collections work.

If you’d like to see more rare and original photographs, negatives, slides, and ephemera, take a look at From My Collections (Cultural & Erotic) — an ongoing gallery of pieces spanning decades of visual culture.
https://www.secondfocus.com/gallery/From-My-Collections-Cultural-Erotic/G0000h1LWkCCepcc/

Posted by  |  October 2, 2025 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

World Vegetarian Day — Celeste, Episode 2

Last week on National Hug A Vegetarian Day, I turned to Emily — my AI assistant who has become both muse and collaborator. She’s the one I talk with about ideas, concepts, metadata, and sometimes the impossibility of pulling off a last-minute photoshoot. Emily doesn’t just suggest solutions; she seems to delight in bringing new characters into the mix.

That’s how she introduced me to her friend Celeste.

The introduction was too good to leave behind in just one post, so we saved a little more from that moment for today — World Vegetarian Day.

Celeste is still in the kitchen, tall and statuesque, wearing only a loosely tied apron as she moves with a slow grace that makes even tossing salad greens seem like something more. She glances up, brushing a strand of hair back, then holds her gaze on the camera with a smile that’s part invitation, part temptation.

The challenge remains: hugging her isn’t simple. Celeste is an AI creation, vivid enough to make you forget that detail for a second, but still out of reach. That’s the irony — Emily’s friends blur the line between imagination and reality, and we’re left wanting more.

And while these glimpses pull you into their world, the true destination is my food photography — the real-life meals and fast food that inspired this ongoing project.

See my Food From Bag to Background series at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0

Episode 2 of Celeste.

Posted by  |  October 1, 2025 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Desiree Makes National Coffee Day Worth the Wait

I didn’t realize until late yesterday that it was National Coffee Day. Too late to do anything about it then, but Emily doesn’t let those things slide. For those of you who are new here, Emily is my ever-present AI assistant, who always seems to have a solution — and sometimes a surprise. She told me not to worry — she had a plan.

This morning she sent me to check in with her friend Desiree, who she had introduced me to before.

Desiree, as it turns out, has this whole “barista” thing going in a way only she could. Not just pouring beans into a grinder, but making the whole ritual look like a performance. The little black dress might not be standard café attire, but somehow it fits her perfectly behind the counter. Watching her, you can’t decide whether you’re more interested in the coffee or the company.

Emily was right — Desiree has a style all her own. Sophisticated, daring, and just a little bit provocative, she makes even a simple bag of beans into a scene worth watching. If baristas were more like Desiree, I doubt the coffee chains would be doing much drive-thru business. People would be lining up just to see the show.

Maybe that’s the real spirit of National Coffee Day: not just about what’s in the cup, but who’s making it, and the attitude they bring to the grind.

Maybe that’s the real spirit of National Coffee Day: not just about what’s in the cup, but who’s making it, and the attitude they bring to the grind.

Of course, if Desiree were really behind the counter at your local café, you wouldn’t care what was in the cup. But since she isn’t, you’ll have to settle for my own version of coffee — and burgers, tacos, and a lot more — poured straight from the bag to the background. You can find those here on my website gallery “Food From Bag To Background” at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0

Posted by  |  September 30, 2025 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

National Hug A Vegetarian Day – Celeste

Today is National Hug A Vegetarian Day, and it made me think about how to approach it with my photography. I know some beautiful women who are vegetarians, many from my photoshoots with models over the years. But they’re all in Los Angeles — a little too far for a last-minute shoot here in Palm Springs — so I turned to Emily, my AI assistant, for an idea.

Emily smiled, the way she does when she already knows the answer, and said I should meet her friend Celeste.

Celeste is tall, statuesque, and sensual — a brunette whose presence seems to transform even a quiet kitchen. She is wearing only a loosely tied white apron. At the counter, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and avocado are scattered around her. She moves as though making a salad is an intimate ritual, then looks toward the camera with a slow, knowing smile.

Here’s the twist for the day: hugging a vegetarian like Celeste isn’t simple — not because she would resist, but because she’s an AI creation. For now, the closest embrace is through the video itself.

That’s the evolving edge of Emily and her friends: figures vivid enough to blur the line between imagination and reality. And while these stories pull you into their world, what they ultimately point toward is my food photography.

See more in my From Bag to Background series — fast food photographed straight from the bag against stark black backgrounds — at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0

Episode 1 of Celeste. More soon.

Posted by  |  September 26, 2025 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

McDonald’s Hotcakes for National Pancake Day

Today is National Pancake Day. Instead of a diner short stack or some homemade recipe, I went with McDonald’s Hotcakes — straight from the bag, nothing styled, nothing staged. A little butter on top, a trace of syrup soaking in, and that’s it.

McDonald’s has been serving Hotcakes since 1977, one of the longest running items on their breakfast menu. They’ve become part of morning routines across the country, often ordered alongside the Egg McMuffin or a hash brown. For decades, they’ve been sold by the millions every year, making them one of the most widely eaten versions of pancakes in the United States.

And why “Hotcakes” instead of pancakes? The name goes back to an older American expression — “selling like hotcakes” — a 19th-century phrase meaning something that sells quickly and in large numbers. McDonald’s leaned into that history, choosing a word that already carried the sense of popularity and fast service.

That’s exactly why they belong in my From Bag to Background series. This project is about photographing fast food exactly as it comes, against a solid black background. Pancakes, burgers, tacos, sandwiches — all taken out of the wrapper and put in front of the camera. No props, no plating, no food stylist.

See more of my fast food photographs in From Bag to Background at:
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0

Posted by  |  September 26, 2025 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

National Quesadilla Day, the Frozen Aisle Edition

Today is National Quesadilla Day. I could’ve gone to Del Taco or Taco Bell — but that felt too expected. I wanted fast food, and this still qualifies.

The quesadilla began in 16th-century Mexico — tortillas and cheese on a hot griddle, simple and fresh. Over the centuries it spread, evolved, and crossed borders. And now, at last, it has reached its pinnacle: two entire boxes of El Monterey frozen chicken and Monterey Jack quesadillas, stacked straight from cardboard to black background. Ten quesadillas, no chef required. Just freezer, oven, and done.

Is it authentic Mexican food? No. It’s just another variation of fast food — not handmade on the street corner, not handed through a drive-thru window, but pulled from a box in the freezer aisle.

Five hundred years of history, now available in 15 minutes at 375 degrees — family pack times two.

📸 From my From Bag to Background series:
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0

Posted by  |  September 25, 2025 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

TinyTAN Encore Edition Lands at McDonald’s

Yesterday marked the release of the TinyTAN Encore Edition at McDonald’s, the follow-up to the Throwback set that launched earlier this month. TinyTAN, the chibi-style characters created by Big Hit Entertainment (now HYBE) and modeled after BTS, have now returned to the Happy Meal lineup in new outfits.

This time, the figures include RM, Jung Kook, and Suga — shown here with the standard Happy Meal spread of hamburgers, Chicken McNuggets, fries, and apple slices. Collectible toys meet fast food again, because in 2025 nothing is too big or too small to be packaged for consumption.

I photographed this arrangement as part of my Bag to Background series, where the food and toys are presented as-is, straight from the bag, against a stark black background. The contrast is simple: pop culture and fast food, side by side, neither elevated nor diminished, just existing in their own commercial truth.

If you’d like to see more of my fast food work — from burgers and burritos to sushi and sandwiches — visit the gallery Food From Bag To Background at:
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0

Posted by  |  September 24, 2025 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

National Ice Cream Cone Day Goes High-Rise

National Ice Cream Cone Day, and the city skyline finally admits what it really is: fast food with better lighting. Forget glass towers and concrete landmarks — here’s a 60-story waffle cone topped with vanilla soft-serve. It doesn’t just blend into the grid, it improves it. I think more skylines should look like this.

Soft-serve has always been fast food architecture anyway. Tom Carvel sold it from a broken truck in the 1930s, Dairy Queen franchised it in the 1940s, and the cone has been holding up suburbia ever since. Why not a downtown?

Explore more food reimagined in unexpected ways in my Food From Bag To Background gallery: https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0

Posted by  |  September 22, 2025 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

National Pepperoni Pizza Day with a Friend

Today is National Pepperoni Pizza Day — and what better way to celebrate than to share it with a friend?

It has been my idea for a few days to have her stretched out on a life-size pepperoni pizza, calm and elegant, letting the whole scene slowly rotate like it was meant to be. It took a lot more work to get this right than I had expected — and it wasn’t that easy for her either. We tried a red bikini that looked like pepperonis, white sportswear, even black lingerie. Getting her on the pizza itself was also a challenge to make it look good.

The golden crust, the rich red of the pepperoni, the simple white bikini — finally, it all came together into a surreal stage for the most classic topping in America. Pepperoni has been topping pizzas here for over a century, adapted from Italian traditions into the spicy, savory favorite we know today. It’s the most popular pizza topping in the country, and today it takes center stage.

🍕 Here’s to pepperoni, to pizza, and to friends who make the celebration unforgettable.

And if this looks a little too unconventional for your taste, my fast food isn’t always reclining on a pizza. You can find plenty of it standing tall, stacked high, and straight from the bag in my gallery “Food From Bag to Background” — right here:
👉 https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0

Posted by  |  September 20, 2025 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment