Growing up with a mother who has years of experience in the catering industry underneath her belt, I have had an interest in food from an early age. However, despite my love for cooking, I was dissuaded from taking a course in cooking due to several allergies that would impede my progress. Because of this, I wanted to use this opportunity to use the skills I have learnt in photography to appreciate food in my own way. I have been experimenting with angles commonly seen in photos published on food blogs or in cookbooks.

However, I am predominantly hoping to capture up-close details of certain aspects or ingredients of the dishes. For the most part, I want people to find the food I’m photographing to be delicious. But I also want people to try and appreciate food outside of just imagining the taste; I want people to take a good look at the certain areas I’m focusing on and appreciate it visually. 

I have researched five food photographers whose work I believe accentuates the visual appeal of food. Those are Romulo Yanes, Aran Goyoaga, Mowie Kay, Skyler Burt, and Joanie Simon. Out of all of them, I believe that Yanes and Kay are the two that have most inspired my technique the most. They incorporate key techniques and make exceptional use of colour and lighting tones that I believe make for exceptional photo work.

While all five of these photographers have inspired me, those two have given me the ideas needed to make the most of this project. At the least, I wanted my final photos to span every major meal of the day. I’ve always found that food is at its best when there’s variety to it, if you stuck to just one thing, it wouldn’t be interesting at all.