by Julian Jackson Courtesy of Visual Connections. Originally published on Visual Connection's Blog: http://www.visualconnections.com/blog/pink-lady-food-photography-of-the-year-2014/
Photography That’s Good Enough To Eat
Winners have been chosen in the international photography competition Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year Award 2014. The category sponsored by specialist food images agency StockFood is “Food off the Press” for the best recently published food photograph.
Winning photos were chosen in 16 different categories. British photographer Tessa Bunney was named Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year 2014 and won the top prize with a cash award of £5,000 ($8400). Her photo “Noodle Making,” taken in Laos impressed the international jury of 31 top experts. The awards ceremony took place at the prestigious Mall Galleries in London.
Jonnie Léger, General Manager of StockFood UK, says, “The awards celebrate all aspects of food and food photography, and are judged by an elite panel of food and photography professionals. They are the perfect platform for photographers’ work to be seen, recognized and celebrated.”
Headline sponsor, Pink Lady, famous worldwide for the apple of the same name, has honoured the best work of modern food photography for the third consecutive year. This year a total of approximately 6,000 professional and amateur photographers from more than 50 countries participated in the competition. This doubles the number of entries in the first contest two years ago.
Clovelly Herring Festival (c)Guy Harrop
Jonnie Léger adds, “The award has highlighted the art of food photography within the industry as well as with amateurs. Today, everyone with a camera or even a mobile phone is a ‘photographer’. On the whole, this is positive and it’s been celebrated with mobile phone categories within the main award. What is interesting is how amateur and professional alike are using all equipment and media available and producing breathtaking work. This award illustrates the artistic merit of all food imagery from film to still, from amateur to widely acclaimed professional. Seeing the shortlist of entries displayed in one place both accentuates the availability of food photography to all eager ‘Foodies’ and at the same time celebrates the highly skilled art of the professional food photographer. In my mind, this can only raise the professional profile of photographers.”
More than 400 photographers from 20 countries entered the StockFood sponsored category Food off the Press. The entries were recently published images that have appeared in books, magazines, newspapers or advertising. Caroline Martin’s photograph “Roast Pigeons” won despite stiff competition. She is represented in the StockFood Collection with more than 250 photographs. Second and third place went to British photographer Guy Harrop for his (“Herring Festival”) and to Becky Lawton from Spain for her unusual (“Delicias Bajo Cero“). Lawton is also represented in the StockFood Collection with more than 450 photos.
Delicias Bajo Cero (c)Becky Lawton
Jonnie Léger continues, “StockFood is very proud to be a sponsor of an award which has a passion for all things food at its core. Our category, StockFood Off the Presscelebrates imagery which has been previously published. This allows us to further support the photographers who work in our industry.The awards are great for everyone involved. Judges are exposed to the best of food photography; Photographers at all levels are celebrated and their work seen by not only the general public, but also the ‘great and the good’ of the photography and food worlds. For StockFood, we are able to support the industry, its core professionals and those who will become the next sensation.”
Roasted Pigeons (c)Caroline Martin
The winning photographs can be seen here:
www.pinkladyfoodphotographeroftheyear.com/2014/finalists-gallery.php
StockFood, headquartered in Munich, but now with offices in the USA and UK, is a leading food specialist among image agencies, offering creative professionals in media, marketing, advertising and publishing the largest food image database on the internet at www.stockfood.com. This includes an unmatched range of rights-managed and royalty-free images, videos and features from over 1,000 internationally renowned photographers and film producers.
Julian Jackson is a writer with extensive experience of picture research, whose main interests include photography and the environment. His website is www.julianjackson.co.uk. He also runs a Picture Research by Distance Learning Coursewww.picture-research-courses.co.uk. Linked-in profile.