Don't Drink the Water...Or Eat the Sushi

It's hot under the lights of a photo set. An assistant adjusts the giant 2K lamp and checks on the model sitting in a briefcase, some advertiser's latest ploy to sell a car. The model starts to sweat and after a few hours an awful odor fills the studio. By the end of the shoot, the model, half cooked by the lights, sits rotten and decomposed in the suitcase. Lesson: when the job calls for a salmon sitting in luggage, a photographer needs a model with very little personality: a model made of plastic.

Fake sushi, plastic baguettes and phony pharmaceuticals clutter Thomas Trengove's studio on 247 West 30th St in New York City. In the 1970s, the maker of fakes began his career constructing acrylic furniture in the city's photo district. "Living and working there, I became exposed to the needs and the gaps in the photo business. We got requests from some of our furniture contacts to do props and I realized that this was something I was equipped to do." By 1980 he began his foray into the props industry.

Today, Trengove Studios Inc. boasts a long shopping list of synthetic inedibles: grilled/raw salmon, toothpaste, crepes, plums, pineapple sundaes, pork spare ribs, red wax cheese wheels and hundreds more.

Trengove specializes in realistic reproductions of water. He makes twelve different types of cubes, from the standard ice cube to the "amorphic" ice cube to the "soda" cube. His custom made liquid spills, splashes, pours and drips have earned the praise of several high profile New York photographers.

Trengove says that many of his materials come from outside the field of photography. One example of this is his product, Crystal Ice, a powder that has the ability to absorb an enormous amount of water so that it swells up and looks exactly like crushed ice. The chemical originally came from the cosmetics industry where it was used in products such as moisturizer, and Trengove confessed that his secret ingredient also has agricultural uses as well.

How to buy a 12-inch-long icicle or a fake Pastrami on Rye sandwich? Call 1-800-366-2857 for a list of products and prepare for astounding prices; that Pastrami on Rye will set you back $70. Of course, the high costs are a result of expensive individual molds, labor intensive hand carving and specialty chemicals. Call today for a model of your very own.