The bottom of the pan or the planet? Household photo studies by Christopher Jonassen

Christopher Jonassen's Devouring series began as a casual exploration of kitchen utensils. However, it later evolved into a profound artistic statement that resonates with universal themes through the prism of everyday objects.

Devouring consists of a series of still lifes depicting the undersides of old frying pans carefully lit to resemble distant planets in an unknown celestial system.

Jonassen embarked on this visual journey in 2003 while studying abroad in Australia. While living in budget housing with friends, he noticed badly worn kitchen utensils. Intrigued by the stories these objects could tell through their scars and marks, Jonassen began photographing them.

His fascination extended to scouring basements and attics for potential candidates, with a particular fondness for those used by local Boy Scout troops. These heavy cast iron pans, charred and scratched from years of use and exposure to open fires in backwoods camps, became his favorite objects.

Over the years, Jonassen created hundreds of these "portraits" of pans. Although most of the "models" look as they did when he first found them, Jonassen occasionally enhances their texture with oils and uses special lighting techniques to achieve the desired results.

"I think it's important to see the beauty in the little things that surround us every day," Jonassen muses.

Jonassen's approach echoes Walt Whitman's statement in his 1855 masterpiece The Song of Myself, where he sees "a blade of grass as no less than the journey of the stars."

What strikes viewers most about Jonassen's work is how these ordinary kitchen pans resemble planets and moons. This effect, intentional on Jonassen's part, reveals hidden worlds within each vessel.

There is something unusual in the way this project combines such disparate elements — kitchen pans and the boundless expanses of space with alien worlds. In doing so, Jonassen seems to echo the sentiments of the poet William Blake, who in 1803 urged his readers to "see the world in a grain of sand / And the sky in a field flower."

Starting his project out of curiosity about the frying pan as a symbol of everyday life, Jonassen soon became fascinated by "how everyday life wears away at the metal of the pan, one tiny scratch at a time." He emphasizes making "the connection between the small footprints we leave behind every day and the huge impact that will only grow over time."