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Terry Border gallery

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• A video about a local artist

The tall guy changed places with the short guy -- Rhett switching out for Link -- so both comedians could get their time on camera.

In the corner of the little front room of a house on a narrow street in Greenwood stood the homeowner, Terry Border, shifting back and forth on his heels, smiling, listening to the boys and their jokes.

Border, a 42-year-old former commercial photographer-turned-food-services-worker-cum-artist, was the subject of this little comedic documentary. His unique works of art, which pose little pieces of food as characters in some strange and faceless universe, were being captured by Rhett and Link as one in a series of "webisodes" being broadcast as the Internet comedians travel the United States.

Border met Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal -- creators of YouTube's "The Facebook Song" and the Web site rhettandlink.com -- at a creative ideas conference in New York earlier in the year, but he didn't realize they would be collaborating so soon.

"So did you start out photographising stuff like this?" asked Link.

"Is that even a verb?" Rhett asked.

"Yes," said Border, grinning. "We use it in the business."

Border used to work as a commercial shooter, capturing images of televisions, ironing board covers and caskets, among other objects, as part of his daily grind.

"It was, uh, kinda depressing," he said. "It was a way to make a living, but that was one of the reasons to get out of commercial photography. I was very frustrated. I got into the business to be a creative guy."

So he quit. He pursued artistic photography, but needed a regular check, so he took a job at a supermarket -- for four days. Walking through the aisles one day, he sensed what he could do with food products, and hasn't looked back since.

Border has a collection of his images coming out in a book in the fall, but he also posts most of his work to his blog, http://bentobjects.blogspot.com. Rhett and Link are featuring him as part of their "Alka-Seltzer Great American Road Trip" -- a sponsored quest to check out famous restaurants, food festivals and characters as they journey from west to east.

By the end of the early June morning of filming, Border had helped the pair construct a work of art using an Alka-Seltzer box as a societal savior of sorts, sitting in a chair, waiting to answer the call of the Bat-Phone when someone's stomach is in need.

"That's the great thing about my art work," Border said. "I can eat it after I shoot it."

"Is that what you normally do?" asked Rhett.

"Do you let it perish on its own expiration time, or do you consume it?" added Link.

If the food used doesn't have too many wires attached to it from the photo session, Border said, it gets eaten.

"The other day I had a roasted chicken in the background, and it took about half an hour to shoot, and then we had dinner," he said. "See, I've written off dinner. I can write off everything."

See how the shoot turned out

Click here to watch Terry Border being interviewed by comedians Rhett and Link, or visit www.SpeedysRoadTrip.com. The "webisode" will be posted there for the rest of the summer. Also check out Border's website at bentobjects.blogspot.com and Indy.com profile