Being in
the culinary industry and taking pictures of the food that I create and plate,
I thought it was best to choose a photographer whose main focus was food as
well. In recent years, the interest in food photography has increased due to popular
blogs on the internet, which are updated much more frequently than recipe
books- the old medium in which food photographs dominated. The chosen
photographer is David Munn, whose style is similar to other food photographers,
as they share a common theme of being shot in strong but diffuse light. Looking
at David’s repertoire of photographs, it easy to identify that he favor one of
two styles, (i) up close angles with the background being less in focus or (ii)
a top view of the food created/plated. Ultimately, I choose David Munn to
compare my photos because I felt that we share a similar style when trying to
capture images of our food.
Upon
first glance of all his photographs (all located on the left hand side) he
tends to favor portrait style shots. While I too sometimes opt for a portrait
layout, I alternate between shooting in portrait and landscape views because it allows for more of the plate to be captured. In the first
image (Munn’s subject of beef, and mine the biscotti) the similarities are
evident in both the angle, shot from the side, as well as the out of focus
background. Also Munn adds interest to his photography by having a model hold a
knife and the cut the beef. This adds a level of complexity to the picture as
you have mulltiple areas to look at. In my picture taken a while back, I used
the blue napkin as well as the cup of coffee to add interest and complexity to
my photograph.I believe that the use of external ‘props’ help to tell a story,
Munn’s cutting of a clearly delicious beef which certainly draws an audience in,
while mine explains that biscotti is best enjoyed along side a cup of black
coffee.
The above photograph demonstrate his second shooting
style, with a top view angle rather than from the side. I took my picture of a
tiramisu in a shooter glass in order to display the the top texture of the
espresso poweder melting into the cream. Munn’s picture of the pie captures the
entire pie (unlike an upclose anlged shot would). However, the difference between
Munn’s and my picture is the level of zoom, because I wanted to capture the
intresting texture, I used a very close zoom as well as a macro lens. Munn’s
photograph is much less zoomed, but this could be due to the fact that a pie in
real life is much larger than a small shooter glass.
In this third image,Munn captures a whole cake (it is
unclear if it is a small or large one) while my image is of a tiramisu as well
as a chocolate mousse cake in shooter glasses. I choose to capture this image
in landscape mode in order to fit the tall glasses in, but also to give a large
view of the background (my dinning room). Munn also allows for a large portion
of the background as well, however, because it is shot in a portrait view, it
extends well above the cake.
Both sets of images above place three food items as the
main focus. While David Munn displays three of the same desserts, perhaps to
show that it was served to multiple people, I display three hand pies because
they were all different flavours. Both of our backgrounds contrast well with
the main subject, his a dark grounding black, mine a vibrant yellow.
Lastly, I choose to show case these image because they
demonstrate what I mentioned before, a strong but diffuse light with the
subject in focus and the background blurred. I choose this style frequently,
because it allows the viewer to focus on what I feel is most important, the
food. While a background can add intrest and help to tell a story, I bleieve
food photography should showcase the food in its simplicity.
1968, Eddie Adams
