Seattle gallery highlights hidden features of everyday food

You might know Nathan Myhrvold from his part cookbook, part encyclopedia "Modernist Cuisine" book series.

But this week, the former Microsoft executive has opened a Seattle gallery to highlight his passion for food photography.

The photographs show everyday food, but up close. Really up close.

One of them shows a cluster of blueberries. On a recent trip to the gallery, located next to Pike Place Market, Myhrvold pointed to the berry’s familiar, yet not widely known, features.

“You can see the blue skin, you can see the dusty layer of gray, whitish thing, you see the same thing on grape," Myhrvold said. "That's wild yeast."

Look closer, Myhrvold said, and you see what he calls a "navel."

"So you see details of every blueberry you’ve ever eaten, but you didn’t know it," he said.

It's strange to Myhrvold that food photography isn’t considered as art, and tends to be confined to menus or ads.

“And I say no, food is beautiful, food is part of our lives," he said. "Why can’t food be in your living room, or in your office or anywhere else you’d hang a picture?”

This is Myhrvold's third gallery location after Las Vegas and New Orleans.