The Societies of Photographers Food Photography Competition 2023

The Society of International Commercial and Industrial Photographers have announced the winners of their recent Food Photography Competition, and we are delighted that our founder, Tina Wing, won four of the 20 highly commended places.

Here are a few more details about the winning images from Tina.

Wood fired pizza

I regularly see takeaway pizza restaurants using the same stock photography in their marketing. I wanted to show that this needn't be the case, and you can have something beautiful and unique in your food marketing. So I grabbed this Italian ham, mushroom and mascarpone sourdough wood fired pizza, cooked it up and gave it a food styling photo session of it's own.

People often ask me if I get to eat the food I photograph. When I am in the middle of a food photography session, I'm normally so focussed on getting the shot for the client, that I forget to eat. Fortunately, as this shot was just for me, I photographed it just before my lunch, and really enjoyed eating it afterwards.

I love the rustic, authentic feel to this image, and I'm delighted that the judges also agreed with me.

Italian ham, mushroom and mascarpone sourdough wood fired pizza

Walnuts

I was visiting my sister in her new home and investigating her wonderful garden that looks out onto farmland. Right at the end she has a very old walnut tree. I gathered some of the fallen nuts and took them home.

I'm always fascinated by the patterns and textures in walnuts, so I wanted to create a very dark, moody food image of them. When I show this photograph to people, they always comment on the amount of detail in it.

Walnuts

Sandwiches

Toast, the toasted sandwich company, commissioned me to photograph their uncooked sandwiches. The owner wanted to have an instant visual guide for his customers to go on the shelf labelling so they could instantly see what was in their sandwiches. He also used them for posters on the walls.

Part of the brief was to show the quality of the ingredients, including the artisan bread made by the local bakery. Instead of showing the sandwiches in their closed form, before they go into the toaster, I thought it was better to style the shot with them open, so that you could see the actual loaf of bread, and all the goodies that go inside. It was also styled in mind of the clients dark branding style.

This pulled pork and 3 cheese sandwich was just amazing.

Sandwich photography for Toast

Cheese Platter

This cheese platter was photographed for the coffee shop Dandelion and Burdock. As a coffee shop during the day, the Dandelion and Burdock also runs themed evenings. They commissioned me to photograph their daytime menus, plus their tapas and wine evening offerings.

When doing the food styling for this shot, I took my inspiration from the colours of the cheeses and fig jelly, and complimented them with the autumn leaves. I worked onsite at the clients for this shoot, and took a large range of backdrops and slates with me. They chose this lovely black wood for their evening shots, along with the slate.

Cheese platter

It's really important when you are a creative to push your boundaries, and entering competitions is a big part of a photographer's development. I am really thankful to the judges for the highly commended awards.

Now I love all these images, but which one makes you the 'hungriest for the food'?

The Society of International Commercial and Industrial Photographers (SICIP)

In the competitive world of Commercial and Industrial photography the Society increases the profile and visibility of members. Tina has been a member of the SWPP since 2015, and SICIP since 2019.