FOOD & DRINK PHOTOGRAPHY Apr 2012

Al MacDonald is a food and advertising photographer conveniently located near Chicago's O'Hare airport. For over 35 years, he has been commissioned by leading food companies and restaurants from a number of countries. Al and his current business partner, Renee, have created an impressive body of work for the food industry. They have extensive experience in producing photos for frozen food retail packaging as well as B2B advertising, recipe illustration and foodservice applications.

The 5400 sq. ft. studio facility has a comfortable client lounge and an extensive prop room. The large, fully equipped kitchen has KitchenAid Pro series appliances along with additional commercial refrigeration and freezers. Al uses a large format Sinar digital system which produces files capable of enlargement for point-of-sale posters as well as trade show booth displays and outdoor boards.

Visit the website for more information.

Andy Lewis specialises in food, drink and still life photography for advertising, packaging and editorial clients.

Based out of his studio in St Leonard’s, Sydney, Andy’s recent clients include some of the biggest brand names in Australia and Asia. Woolworths, Goulburn Valley, V Iced Coffee, Kingdom Beer, Masterfoods, Strongbow, Donna Hay Magazine, Women's Weekly Magazine and Delicious Magazine are just a few of his regular clients.

His fastidious approach and highly technical photographic skills, combined with advanced retouching experience, create world-class results.

Andy Seymour specialises in food, drink and still life photography.

He operates out of his Central London studio.

Visit his website for more information.

Chris Biggs is one of the most experienced and highly regarded drinks photographers in London. A perfectionist, he enjoys the creative and the technical challenge of realising the most complex of visuals with assurance and craftsmanship.

Biggs Represents is a unique production facility based in Great Portland Street supporting four individual, established and talented photographers.

Sarah Leggett has a passion for food, art and design. Highly successful and with an enviable client base, she brings personality and her natural spontaneity to her commissioned photography.

Tristan Townley has a keen interest in design and form. His graphic, vibrant style and superb technical skills are evident in his drinks photography and still life projects.

Sally Hamer's interests are in food and travel. Her photography is influenced by the colour and customs of the places she visits, and by her ever-present enthusiasm for current fashions and themes.

Colin Cooke has been a commercial photographer for 25 years, focusing on food and food-related lifestyle products. Artistry, combined with his highly skilled technical lighting capabilities, have made him one of the top food photographers working today. 

Colin has photographed for many of the top blue-chip food companies and magazines for products such as Kraft-Triscuits, Ragu, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Maxwell House, Jell-O, Planters, Minute Rice, Unilever, Bertolli Olive Oil, Lipton Tea, Lipton Sides, Hellman's, Knorr, Slimfast, I Can't Believe it's Not Butter!, Shed's Spread, Mrs. Butterworth's, Dove Soap, Lifebuoy, Sunlight, All, Surf, Cadbury Chocolates, Dove Chocolates, Publix Supermarkets (ice cream), Panasonic, Titleist, IBM, American Express, Jurlique, Country Living, Ladies Home Journal, Men's Health, Food Arts, Wine Spectator, Healthy Choice, Seagrams Brands, Renaissance Hotels, Waterford, Dannon, Colgate, Haagen Dazs, and many more.

Colin is represented by Doug Truppe.

Daniel Zheng is an award-winning photographer from Singapore with over 25 years experience in the industry. He is based in Shanghai and is represented worldwide by Getty Images.

Daniel has handled many assignments in the studio as well as on location. He has a large choice of table props and backgrounds available in his studio. His versatile portfolio covers many photography genres, with food, beverage and splash his specialties.

Daniel works for a variety of clients including Pepsi, Johnnie Walker, Heineken,  Haagen Dazs, KFC, Pizza Hut, Cornetto, Knorr, McDonald's, Kraff, Lipton and  Campbell's.

Visit his website to see more of his portfolio.

Gerrit Buntrock shoots food and drink for high-end clients such as Waitrose, Nestlé, Lindt, Morrisons, Johnnie Walker, Maison Blanc and Duchy Originals, to name but a few.

He has been extremely busy during the last 12 months shooting large packaging ranges of over 170 lines for Quorn, Cauldron and many top- and mid-tier ranges for Waitrose. He is based in West London where he owns two studios fully kitted out for food shoots.

Gerrit specialises in food and drink photography and loves problem solving.

Gokce Erenmemisoglu is a multi award- winning photographer who is based in both Istanbul and Paris. As a several times Epica, Goldem Drum and NYFest award winner, he also won the 'Gourmand, Best Cookbook Photography Award' in Paris in 2008 with his book 'net:425 gr'.

Gokce offers his clients a wide range of skills, from studio to worldwide location shoots using Sinar and Phase-one high-end digital, as well as post production with retouching, image manipulation, CGI and illustration techniques. He is also a Getty Images contributor, for which he travels and works world-wide.

His professional images have appeared in the biggest campaigns for global accounts including Vodafone, Adidas, American Express, Burger King, McDonald's, Peugeot, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and more.

Ilva Beretta is a Swedish freelance photographer based in Tuscany. She specialises in food and still life photography with a predilection for shooting in daylight.

Ilva shoots both commercial and editorial photography and has worked with clients including Esselunga, Four Seasons Hotels, Domain Wines, QA International Sale & Pepe, Alice Cucuina, Myself/Condè Nast and D-La Repubblica delle Donne. She works on location and in her own studio.

Visit her website for more information.

Jacob Lindner is an advertising photographer based in Munich. In recent years he has specialised in food and product photography.

His daylight studio in Munich offers two complete kitchen areas and plenty of cooling storage space for even big food productions. His work includes imagery for packaging and POS materials. With an in-house team of experienced food stylists and freelancers, he offers complete digital workflow across all camera formats -  from small format to high-class studio camera systems.

Jacob works mainly for the food industry but also enjoys shooting people and stock photography.

James and James Productions is a full service still and motion photography studio located in Los Angeles, California. Bruce James and Jennifer James, a husband and wife team, are both photographers specialising in shooting imagery for high-end food and beverage clientele.

With Bruce's exclusive training in New York and San Francisco where he worked beside many well-known photographers, combined with Jennifer's in-depth training at Brooks Institute of Photography where she received a BA in Advertising/Illustration Photography, the couple has worked in the photographic industry for over 25 years.

Backed by an amazing crew of talented individuals, James and James Productions welcomes client collaboration from pre- to post production. Shooting for many leaders in the food and beverage industry, Bruce and Jennifer continue to provide their clients with cutting-edge visuals for food packaging, promotion and advertising.

With more than 20 years experience, James Murphy continues to work with an impressive number of editorial, packaging and advertising clients.

Based in London, James shoots at least one major publishing project a year, working on location and at his studio.

Jean Cazals won the title of Food Photographer of the Year 2012, sponsored by Pink Lady.

Jean is an award-winning food and lifestyle photographer. Over the past decade he has demonstrated his passion for food and its diversity through numerous successful shoots for magazines, advertising and design clients and books worldwide. He loves the challenge provided by different areas of work.

Jean's style is always recognisable, with clean lines and soft lighting mixed with a great sense for detail and craftsmanship that bring out the best and most original results on all of his projects. Atmosphere is the key aspect of his photography.

Jean also shoots commercials. Prints of his work are available on request.

Visit his website for more information and to see more of his work.

Jeff Kauck specialises in food photography for advertising, magazines, cookbooks and packaging. His work has garnered numerous accolades, including a James Beard nomination for his work on 'The Spiaggia Cookbook'.

Known for his ability to bring his subjects to life in a way that is influenced by his training as a water colour painter, a small listing of Jeff Kauck’s corporate clients includes McDonald's, Nestlé, Heinz, Sara Lee, Betty Crocker, Kellogg's and General Mills.

Among the many books for which he has contributed his photography are Patricia Wells’ Salad as a Meal; The ¡Salpicón! Cookbook: Contemporary Mexican Cuisine; Stonewall Kitchen Harvest; Wine Bar Food: Mediterranean Flavors to Crave with Wines to Match; Williams-Sonoma Mastering: Soups and Stews and Chocolate & Vanilla.

Whether it’s creating a global standard for a brand or telling an editorial story, Jeff’s international client base depends on his collaborative working style to bring their artistic vision to life.

Jignesh Jhaveri loves shooting food and drink. Since 1997 he has been creating mouth-watering images for a range of clients, including advertising agencies, beverage manufacturers, cookery books, hotels, individual foodies, food manufacturers, magazines and restaurants.

Jignesh shoots in the studio with natural and simulated daylight as well as on location across the world. He also uses video to express himself and is available for commissions across advertising, packaging and editorial.

With a dedicated food studio, kitchen and prop shop as well as an accomplished in-house post production and 3D/CGI team, turnaround times are quick and quality is of the highest level.

Jignesh has spent the last few months working on a very large range of packaging for a global food manufacturer, helping to create over 350 SKUs. This work will be released shortly. He recently also enjoyed working with the Phantom hi speed camera shooting a commercial for Cadbury Silk Orange Peel.

Clients include Britannia, Cadbury, Elle Decor, Godrej Tyson, GQ Magazine, MTR Foods, McCain Foods, PepsiCo, Real, Switz, Tasty Bite, Unilever and Vogue.

Bremen and Hamburg-based photographer Kai Schwabe has a passion for food photography. Among his clients are names such as Kraft Foods Europe,  Philadelphia, Jacobs, Tassimo, Alberto, Dr. Oetker and Edeka. His skilled approach to briefs and design is greatly acknowledged by all.

In his 500m² daylight studio located in the centre of Bremen, Kai is able to promptly create a range of different environments with his experience in diverse lighting techniques, all in accordance with his clients' wishes.

Featured in this Spotlight is his recently shot barbeque series for the introduction of  Kraft's 'Bullseye BBQ Sauces' in Germany, as well as a series of photographs for  Philadelphia Austria and Germany, partially for use in a cookbook. In addition, Kai also recently completed a series for Aldi USA with agency Equator in Chicago.

Visit his website for more information.

"Sweet dreams, smart minds, clear visions are Leitmotiv for the stories that pictures should tell In food, life, fashion or advertising." 

Matej Fišer makes contemporary food concepts, not just images. From molecular gastronomy to all the classics, inventive food designers and young chefs - all graduates of Le Cordon Bleu - assist in helping the studio to complete projects across food, fashion and advertising photography.

A fusion of styles, emotions and techniques are the essence of images that contain a flair for life. 

Matt Barlow’s name will sound at least familiar to anybody who knows anything about food and drink photography: over the years, he has been creating beautiful and mouthwatering images for clients such as Waitrose, Kellog's, McDonald’s, Le Creuset, Ribena, Bendicks, Bisto, Heinz and Calvè, just to name a few. Matt is equally comfortable with cooked food, fresh produce, drinks and beautifully crafted dishes, having the rare gift to be able to make his subjects almost pop out of the page.

In the last couple of years, alongside his stills portfolio, he has been applying his talent to motion as well, creating several yummy pieces, which will culminate in what he likes to call "Food - The Movie", a several-minutes-long food motion reel, to be released in the next few weeks. Keep an eye on Germaine Walker's website and prepare to be hungry!

Rob Grimm is a dynamic individual; a photographer, a father, a furniture designer, a husband, a yoga nut, a friend, a soccer coach, a little brother and lover of a warm brownie straight from the oven. He's a momma's boy and forever grateful that she gave him a Kodak X-15 camera at the age of eight to document a family trip. Rob has crossed the frozen Baltic Sea in a snowmobile, camped on the beaches of Mexico, lived in Europe, got lost in Paris and made it through CU Boulder in four years. Rob’s collection of music is deep, but his thirst to enjoy life is deeper.

After nearly 20 years in the business, Rob has been blessed to have worked with some of the best clients and brands that the world has to offer.

Stephen Conroy's food photography has featured worldwide as well as in the UK.

His approach is to produce fresh and natural images with daylight or a daylight photography feel.

Clients enjoy working in his relaxed and friendly studios near London's Oval cricket ground.

Whether they are the largest of global brands or a small local business, all of Stephen's clients enjoy the same level of service and attention to detail.

Steve Baxter recently finished work on Waitrose's 'Love Life' range with Pearlfisher, along with a major shoot for French food producer Giraudet.

He also shot with Turner Duckworth on Kraft Germany (Miracoli), and produced shots for a large range of Freefrom products for Tesco with Pemberton and Whitefoord.

Steve worked with Waitrose's design team on BBQ, cereals and menu ranges.

He also produced a recipe book for WeightWatchers UK along with a variety of projects over the course of the last six months.

Terry Benson is a well established photographer specialising in food/lifestyle and still life images from his own large studio based in the heart of Farringdon, London, EC1. Terry’s knowledge, ability and passion for lighting in studio or on location enables him to work with both daylight and artificial light to create the exact image his clients want. His relaxed and easy-going nature endears him to all real people, children and models whilst aways fulfilling his clients' brief.

Terry regularly works within the fields of editorial, packaging, advertising and PR. His current clients include companies such as Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco, WeightWatchers, Thornton's, Design Bridge, Which Magazine, British Heart Foundation, DKLWLOWE and Cico books.

The Marmalade produces complete high-end special effects focusing mainly on food and tabletop photography. The groundbreaking Motion Control System SPIKE brings the creative freedom of a moving camera to the world of high speed filming, enabling the company to create shots that would otherwise be impossible to achieve.

Directors, DOPs, model-makers, mechanical engineers, food stylists, fluids specialists, matte painters, 3D animators and compositing professionals work in close collaboration to conceive and perform all that is necessary to yield the highest quality output in the most cost-effective manner.

No matter what the subject - burger, chocolate or beer - the finely tuned interplay of hand-made and computer-based production methods allows The Marmalade to solve tasks of high complexity and to achieve excellent and homogenous results.