LOVE ON A PLATE

MASTERCRAFTSMAN

- Sweta Baruah

What drew you specifically into food photography? Are you a ‘foodie’ yourself?

I am indeed a foodie and love to cook a lot. Food connects to me like nothing else. It is not just a product to shoot when it comes to photography, but also carries a lot of emotions and moments with it. I used to click a lot of photographs of food, right from the day I left home for college. Whenever I visited my hometown, I would take photographs on those cell phone VGA cameras, so that I could see them later upon going back to hostel. I am that kind of a guy who will first feed his camera lens and then feed himself. The kind of guy who climbs upon the chair after ordering food in a busy restaurant, shoot the amazing spread on the table, and not care about the awkward looks from people. Food styling and photography came a lot later and the reason I took food photographs was to remind me of the amazing food I had with these amazing people in that moment.

What constitutes your creative process?

Thousands of pictures. Hundreds of thousands. I may not eat the food, but I will photograph it for sure. Usually, I prepare myself half of the time in advance when I plan to shoot. The props, the backdrops, the composition and the light, the diffusers, the reflectors, the post-processing and all the supporting elements are mostly planned.

For the other half, I intentionally take impromptu photos to work out my creative skills and see how fast I can plan a frame and still make it look good. Food remains pretty for a very short time. You have to be mentally prepared and act quickly or remake it several times.