FOODPHOTO FESTIVAL 2017 Vejle - Review by Stevan Paul
A review by Stevan Paul - Thank you Stevan! Original Artikel
Vejle, a small town in southern Denmark, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from either Hamburg or Copenhagen, is the venue for the industry get-together of the best food photographers and food stylists, art directors, cookbook authors and food journalists every two years – the FOODPHOTO FESTIVAL in Vejle is the only one of its kind, which is why many of the visitors have much longer journeys than the people from Hamburg: colleagues and friends come from all over the world, from Guatemala, the USA, from Australia. Food photographers from 26 nations meet here
Exhibitions, workshops, lectures, podium discussions, portfolio reviews, network dinners in selected restaurants, screenings and a gala evening with an award ceremony are the highlights of the big family reunion, organised and curated by the German photographer Günter Beer, who lives near Barcelona and is a friend of mine.
What Günter and event manager Manon Straver have been organising every two years since 2010 is more than just a conference: it is a series of highly interesting and informative days, filled with inspiring encounters, the opportunity to exchange ideas and network with colleagues from all over the world, view work, discover similarities, discuss solutions and approaches to common problems, and develop ideas for new projects. The FOODPHOTO FESTIVAL in Vejle is a creative space – and I always come away from it with a great deal of energy and ideas for my daily work and for my next cookbook project.
This year, as always, the festival kicked off with a welcome dinner at Restaurant Vedelsborg, where I enjoyed the pleasure of seeing old and new faces again, along with fine Danish cuisine from Michael Bøgild.
First, cod fish tartare on smoked cream cheese cream with green asparagus and roasted pumpernickel, accompanied by a characterful, fresh 2015 Pouilly-Fumé from Jean Pabiot. Then, delightfully Danish, the tongue-in-cheek deconstruction of a smørrebrød with roasted, salted brioche, Arctic sea shrimp, quail egg and grilled asparagus on an airy tarragon hollandaise.
The lamb, a whole-roasted neck, was served on roasted potatoes – the Danish twist is the freshly chopped dill in the white wine jus, which tastes fantastic (and is stolen)! The dish was accompanied by deliberately very long and very soft braised oyster mushroom strips and, as a contrast, raw spring onions that had only been quickly tossed in hot butter – absolutely delicious.
Madelein-like mini cakes, vanilla ice cream with large strawberries and rhubarb pieces were the dessert. I was sitting at the table with Gunner Byskov from Medieskolerne – Media College Denmark, photographer Hein van Tonder from South Africa and food stylist Mary Valentine from Chicago – that's the Foodphoto Festival!
Workshop days
I don't attend the numerous workshops offered during the festival so much; here it is much more about technical photography, working with daylight, sunlight with studio lights, photographing in restaurants, putting together a portfolio, etc. – I am a fan of the conferences and have hardly missed a lecture this year. The morning of the first day is dedicated to workshops, and in the afternoon everyone comes together in the airy exhibition and conference rooms of the Spinderi Halllern to give and listen to lectures. In order, here are the short reviews:
Food Photography Trends
Here I am on the podium myself at the start of the series of lectures, and I have to be careful not to be too much of a fan, because my colleagues are the revered photographer Per-Anders Jörgensen (‘Eating with the chefs’ is one of my favourite ‘cookbooks’), the great Silvan Mueller from Switzerland, whose books ‘Japan’, ‘The culinary heritage of the Alps’ and ‘Leafe to Roots’ I love, and last but not least my esteemed colleague Heidi Robb from Cleveland, whose work I admire above all, her pure lightness and elegance in food styling, this randomness that is always anything but random. And what are the trends? In conversation (gladly moderated by the wonderful Anne Klein from Israel) we realise: In addition to smaller trends and movements such as self-made props, it is the photo assignments themselves that should determine the look of a work. Crumbs and spills are out, and professional photographers should more than ever remember their professionalism and insist on quality in order to counter the flood of images of varying quality in the online sector.
The reluctant food photographer
What a title! Per-Anders Jörgensen talks about his work, shows pictures, provides insights, shares ideas and talks about Fool Magazine, which he produces with his wife Lotta. A new edition is coming out this autumn!
Think like an art director
Peter Steiner, art director of Der Feinschmecker magazine for over twenty years, talks about his work and shows a wide range of cover designs for food magazines. He will make these available to festival participants from June on the festival homepage as a blueprint, where a colourful gallery of possibilities will be created – and, by the way, the participating photographers can remind people of themselves.
And then it's evening! This year's network dinner is at the MeMu restaurant – here, too, fresh, new Danish cuisine in a casually elegant ambience. Starter: fresh cucumber with barely cooked peas, green strawberries and scallops with roasted hazelnuts and buttermilk fish sauce – insanely good, the rest of the menu falls slightly short by comparison, but at a high level: a savoy cabbage roll stuffed with fish on a caramelised cream sauce and boiled veal breast under an unnecessary gelatine skin made from beetroot, with an excellent sauce made from jus and melted marrowbone marrow.
The next day is a marathon of lectures and it starts off with something super interesting.
Online marketing strategies to promote your photography business
I'll keep it short: I thought I was quite well positioned online, with a business page, blog, Instagram, three Facebook accounts, Twitter... But Catherine Delaloye from Production Paradise explained to me quite impressively in her lecture that there is a lot more that can be done. More effectively, too. I'll be staying late.
Understanding composition in food styling
Food styling colleague Mary Valentin from the USA uses paintings, works of art and still lifes by old masters to explain the importance of a well thought-out overall composition for an effective food photo, how the human eye sees and perceives, how we can direct the gaze of the viewer of our work. Particularly interesting: the call to boldly leave more space, keyword: empty areas in an image. This is exciting, work on my cookbook after the next one starts this week – and I listened carefully! :-)
Food stills / video
Then comes Scott Grummett, ‘how old are you’, is the first question from the audience at the subsequent talk – this does not only refer to the youthful appearance of the talented photographer and filmmaker from London, it is also about his truly dynamic work, perfection.
Scott Grummett Showreel 2017 from Scott Grummett on Vimeo.
Scott (29) starts off by saying that he hasn't touched a camera in years, that he's more of a food director and delegates an impressive team of people for his truly impressive commercials, trailers and short films. It was not only the Germans in the audience who sighed at the thought of how most food films are made in our country (‘You can just shoot that on video!’). Films like the one Scott showed in Vejle are made differently:
Weight Watchers ‘All You Can Eat’ from Rogue Films on Vimeo.
Daylight food photography
Adrian Mueller, brother of Sylvan Mueller, lives and works in New York as a photographer and talks in a highly entertaining way about his work there – along the way we learn a lot about professional work with daylight, Adrian Mueller even photographs campaigns and packaging jobs with daylight – and is rewarded with images in which the light caresses things.
Self publishing books
German photographer Dirk Gebhardt talks about his experiences and the possibilities of self-publishing. In a nutshell: a large part of the income remains with you, but so does all the work on a book. Distribution is also a problem, because it is hardly possible to get into bookstores, but of course there are ways of direct marketing online and an ISBN number is not rocket science either. Dirk Gebhardt has just published a magnificent photographic portrait of Germany. He walked across the country, spoke to people from all walks of life and portrayed them, showing landscapes, scenes, moments. The book ‘Ein Jahr Deutschland’ (One Year in Germany) is a road movie, picture book and a book to browse through, social reportage and photographic art – and it works. Even on first glance, I think: I don't know my country at all. This book makes you curious and smarter!
Ute Edda Hammer, managing director of the Weingarten KVH publishing group, reports on the world of photo calendars, which is very distant and foreign to me, and I am amazed: I had no idea how much effort goes into producing them. I always thought that calendars were a kind of second use for books. I am disabused. 100-150 images must be available for a calendar theme alone, from which only 12 images are sometimes selected. It is also a very unique, but surprisingly large and vibrant market.
PechaKucha
Pe...what? An open presentation in which visitors and participants can present their work or project ideas in short slots of 20 images or slides, each of which can only be seen for 20 seconds. The interested audience answers questions, gives tips, and, at best, suggestions or support.
Screening and Awards
The highlight and glamorous finale of the festival is the FOOD PHOTO FESTIVAL Award with screening. Food photos on a big screen are a delight. In Vejle, the wide image show with photo works from all over the world was once again very well composed, with perfectly sampled and edited music to accompany the contributions. Personally, I was very happy to see pictures from my new cookbook on a big screen for the first time (it will be on the market on 1 August!), the photos by photographer Andrea Thode, the props styling by Meike Graf (you were missing and I was proud of us in the dark of the theatre!)
The prizes were then awarded: the FOODFEATURE 2017 AWARD award went to Maisie Crow, whose photo film ‘Hunger’ about Prader Willi Syndrome (PWS) is not only very moving, but also narratively convincing. In the future, the clever combination of moving images with classic photography and working with the soundtrack will create completely new possibilities for expression. Unfortunately, the film cannot be played in one piece, but it can be found behind this link, almost 5 minutes that are really worth watching:
The jury (Ute Hammer, Emma Syrett, Mary Valentin, Per-Anders Jörgensen, Peter Steiner) also honoured Carmen Troesser for the FOODPHOTO 2017 AWARD.
Unfortunately, neither of the award winners was able to attend, but Carmen Troesser sent a lovely email in praise of the festival, which will be taking place again in 2019:
‘This festival brings together some of the world's most celebrated food photographers and stylists in an environment that encourages us to take risks and tell the stories of food through our own unique prisms. The talent and energy for our craft here is humbling. Many many thanks...’.
For the upcoming festival, Günter Beer and his team are considering a prize for food styling, which I would welcome, because that makes up half of food photography – or, to be precise, more like a third, because pops and interiors are just as important for the overall visual effect. And if we were on ‘Wünsch Dir was!’, I would also see a team prize for cookbooks for this reason (photo, food styling, styling and with the book designers too!), that would be great! And a prize for magazine reportages or photo series in a magazine. We food creators rarely celebrate ourselves, we mostly quietly withdraw behind our work, so there can be a few more prize winners every two years – this would certainly be a brilliant signal for the external perception of the festival and our industry.
I would like to say a very personal thank you to Günter Beer and Manon Straver, the FOODPHOTO FESTIVAL team, the many experts who generously shared their knowledge in Vejle, and to my colleagues and friends – for a great and inspiring time, for new impulses and new ideas. Thank you!