The Big Fat Duck Cookbook
Photographer: Dominic Davies
via James Beard Foundation Awards 2009.
Feb
10
2012
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About:
A Photo Editor (APE) is edited by Rob Haggart, the former Director of Photography for Men's Journal and Outside Magazine. Contributors include fine art photographer Jonathan Blaustein (@jblauphoto) and Creative Director Heidi Volpe.
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Photography? Really? The food stylist should be getting the award.
@Mason,
The book won the award but I disagree that these pictures are just food styling. Regardless it’s under the direction of the photographer just like the rest of the crew and you have no idea what was involved.
@A Photo Editor, You’re right of course, and I’m sure the complicated studio lighting was even more so because of the nature of the food’s properties + concepts they were capturing. My comment was more a reaction to the photographer getting all the credit for the book. There’s a difference between ‘Best Film’ and ‘Best Director.’
Since food photography is such a collaboration between a stylist or chef and the photographer maybe a shared award would be in order.
A chef friend of mine has that and let me just say, it’s the best food photography I’ve ever seen / imagined. Well deserved!
PS. The chef’s are eligible for different awards.
Food is a very difficult subject to shoot. He did an outstanding job!
The photography is fantastic. A lot of food photography seems to be stuck in the same stylistic rut – I applaud Mr. Davies in bringing his own aesthetic to these photos.
I should mention that the Alinea cookbook (which won the “Cooking From A Professional Point of View” award) has spectacular photography of similarly excellent caliber. Photographer Lara Kastner did an excellent job – some of the photos are available on the Alinea site:
http://www.alinea-restaurant.com/pages/gallery/gallery_top.html
and on her site:
http://www.larakastner.com/
Tuan
Lara Kastner’s images are excellent from an aesthetic point of view. There are some annoying technical flaws however, most notably many completely blown highlites. The cmyk-conversion of the book is done either in a stupid hurry or by someone not up to the task and this ruins several images which is a pity.
This is pretty common these days and unfortunately I see this as a growing tendency.
I’m a food photographer… and can only say that the food stylist as far as i’m concerned is the most important person on my team. It can really make or break a shoot.