Food photography is a challenging genre to master, but get it right and you’ll produce a frame that, quite literally, makes the mouth water. That’s exactly what the winning images from the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2019 contest served up when they were announced to the public.
The annual competition represents the cream of the food photography industry and this year’s contest saw more than 9000 images entered from 77 different countries. Chinese photographer Jianhui Liao, took the top Food Photographer of the Year 2019 title, as well as bagging a £5000 cash prize.
Jianhui Liao’s winning image, entitled Cauldron Noodles, captures a celebration in the Shexian County, Hebei Province area and was taken with a Sony a7RII. The image also took top honours in the ‘Food for Celebration’ category, too.
In the Food Stylist category, Martin Poole’s patriotic image, entitled ‘British Summer Fruits Flag’ made a big impact and showed a creative use of lighting.
British photographer Elise Humphrey took first place in the ‘Food for Sale’ category for her image entitled ‘Ramadan’. The photo was captured on a Fujifilm X-T20 and Elise commented; “A hungry market-stall holder in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, sits among forbidden fruits during Ramadan, whilst dreaming of her next meal.”
In the ‘Bring Home the Harvest’ category, Bangladesh photographer Kazi Mushfiq took top honours for an image entitled ‘Harvesting Gold’. Kazi captured the image on a Canon 6D, paired with a 17-40mm lens and commented on the image; ‘Farmers were working hard harvesting the rice which is like gold to them.’
In the ‘Fujifilm Award for Innovation’ category, UK-based photographer Michael Hedge captured this abstract image that he entitled ‘Broken Egg’. “This image is part of a series of images I did for the RSA Magazine illustrating the delicate relationship between food, farming and the countryside,” commented Michael, who took the image using a Phase One XF camera with an IQ 250 digital back.
In the ‘Food at the Table’ category, British photographer Giles Christopher took first place for his fine-art image, entitled ‘Mussels Ready to Eat’. The image was captured using Sony’s a7RIII, paired with a 90mm TS-E lens.
The competition featured a categories for young photographers and in the 11-14 range, Jemima Painter from Thailand was named as the winner. Jemima’s image, entitled ‘Fresh Thai Ingredients’ was taken with an iPhone 7.
In the hotly-contested ‘Street Food’, Indian photographer Debdatta Chakraborty took first place for an image entitled ‘Rishu Kesarwale’, which was captured using a Nikon D750 paired with a 16-35mm lens. “Rishu Kesarwale has his shack in one of the busiest streets of Allahabad city. Here he sells warm milk, yogurt, cottage cheese and, of course, masala chai – India’s most popular drink,” commented Debdatta.
British photographer Andrew Newey used his Canon EOS 5D Mark III to captured highly atmospheric image entitled ‘Pumpkins at Sunrise’, which took first place for the ‘Food in the Field’ category. Andrew commented; “On a cold autumn morning, the sun gradually appears through the mist over a pumpkin patch in the New Forest National Park, England.”
Italian photographer Cosimo Barletta took first place in the ‘Production Paradise’ category for a striking image, entitled ‘Red Octopus’, which was taken on a Canon 5DSR DSLR paired with a 90mm TS/E lens. Comino commented; “When you “release the kraken” on the table… you never know what will happen!”
DigitalRev 