I am always interested in the Spanish colonies obsession with death and celebrating Halloween is always such a huge event.
I love the tones and textures of this skull.
THE POLITICS OF HUMILIATION
Excellent article by ad agency legend, Dave Trott.
Everyone is struggling to understand the rise of populism in politics.
When Donald Trump is so obviously awful, how can his base still support him with all the evidence against him?
Trump understands this effect – he said: “I could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and I wouldn’t lose a single vote.”
Democrats keep repeating how awful he is, and how stupid his followers are.
They humiliate his supporters and expect them to admit they are thick and ignorant.
Then they wonder why this argument doesn’t persuade them to change their vote.
The blue collars may not like Trump, but they hate being humiliated by people who think they are superior.
Michael Sandel, lecturer on political philosophy at Harvard, has written a book called The Tyranny of Merit.
His point is the myth of a meritocracy is what’s brought us to this point.
The myth that anyone with a college degree is more intelligent, more hard-working, better informed than anyone without.
This leads to the politics of humiliation, and it also breeds a massive backlash.
In America the smug, educated left-wing bred the indignant Trump supporters.
After the USSR fell, the West humiliated Russia as losers, which lead to the rise of Putin the “strong man”, who would restore Russian pride.
After World War One, the Armistice was a chance to reconcile both sides.
But the treaty of Versailles put all the blame on Germany, humiliating and bankrupting them.
This lead directly to the rise of Hitler, to “restore German pride”.
Intellectual arrogance is so assured of its own rightness, no other opinion is possible.
So the other side are treated as deluded fools.
Consequently a backlash is created.
As Nelson Mandela said: “There is nobody more dangerous than one who has been humiliated.”
It’s important for us to know the seductive danger of intellectual superiority.
Our target market will often be people who are not like us.
At university, we learn our purpose is to educate the world to a woke agenda.
It’s a noble quest and anything else is ignorant and stupid.
We bring this into advertising and believe that is the whole purpose of our job.
We believe everyone is like us and must see the correctness of our opinion.
But 60% of the UK doesn’t have a university degree.
They’ve never been to university, so they may not (gasp) think like us.
This disparity between those making the advertising and those viewing it results in advertising like the Gillette commercial on “toxic masculinity”.
Where a brand of razor decided to lecture all men on how they should behave.
How did this marketing by humiliation work out?
Gillette had to cancel the advertising, wasting millions of dollars, and apologise.
Patronising arrogance led to Kylie Jenner stopping a riot by handing a policeman a Pepsi.
Pepsi had to cancel the advertising, again wasting millions of dollars, and apologise.
As Sandel says, “The Tyranny of Merit” leads to the intellectual smugness of thinking the sole job of advertising is to propagate a woke agenda.
Believing that every right-thinking person must think exactly like us.
Those who don’t think like us are wrong and therefore not worth considering.
They can safely be ignored.
Even if they are the target market.
BROWN FOOD
As a young boy I was the only child at school who knew what job they wanted to have in the future. I wanted to be a wildlife film maker. Born and bred in the Far East and spending a lot of time on the beach. I was obsessed with Jacques Cousteau and later big cats.
After Art College I didn’t have any contacts for wildlife film making, so took the studio route assisting James Cotier & Terence Donovan in Terry’s Charlotte Street studio. At the time food photography was awful and the least interesting area of photography but 25 years later after seeing Robert Freson’s books ‘A taste of France & Italy” I changed direction and love it.
So many lovely inspiring people work in the food industry. When I started, chefs worked below ground with the maitre d’it having his name above the door but not any more. Chefs have become celebrities. When I’ve flown abroad with chefs like Raymond Blanc & Heston etc it’s always in a private jet.
One cookery writer, I really like is Rachel Roddy https://racheleats.wordpress.com/ She’s lovely and a brilliant writer but her food is always brown and she proudly says she ‘loves brown food’. As a food photographer I’m aware food photos can so easily become brown, so I try to use anything to brighten up the image. Fresh produce (& props) are always a good option.
Homegrown heritage tomatoes
Autumn quinces
Roasted tomato & ricotta bruschettas
Tagliatelle al pomodoro con pangrattato
Chicken tikka
ASSOCIATION AWARDS FINALIST - STILL LIFE SERIES
I’m delighted to have another 3 photos in the AOP Awards 2020, which takes me to 70 images in these awards over the years, which may be a record.
I like this still life series. It’s very simple so each photo has to be just right.
San Francisco sour dough, seeded and waste less loaves from Gail’s Bakery
WORKING BETWEEN RAIN SHOWERS DURING LOCKDOWN
You should be able to take a good photo with any camera whether a £50k Hasselblad or an i-phone and in the same way whether it’s in a studio, bedroom or outside in your garden.
I include a few set up examples using my home grown gourds and tomatoes.
It may look a bit precarious but it shows you don’t need a fancy set up, just the idea and the creativity and patience to make it work. It may look a bit mad & wacky but photography is very simple.
I love my camera bag from Florence with a pug with pink bows.
A family of gourds before the magic
Shooting wide open, hand held at 1/40th. I probably took 60 images per vegetable, with variations with slightly different focus, levels and cropping, then quite a bit of post production on the Mac.
I love taking pictures when it’s a good idea, just like a kid in a sweet shop. I could easily spend a week on a shot if I knew i could make it better and better.
Is my garden greener?
As a Food (& still life) Photographer you quickly learn that most food is brown. Cookery writer, Guardian and friend, Rachel Roddy columnist goes as far as to say the ‘Best food is brown’.
With more demand for vegan & vegetarian organic seasonal food, I’ve made a concertive effort to try to increase green & colour into my food pictures.
Home-grown veggies
Fresh girolles, Condé Nast Traveller
Conchiglioni with broccoli
Tomato linguine pasta with pangrattato
Cabbage parcels stuffed with Persian rice
HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR STEAK?
Lockdown shoots
Look at that crispy golden fat!!
LOCKDOWN OVER - ZAYNA RESTAURANT FIRST SHOOT
Great to be back shooting, first shoot with a lovely Pakistani restauranteur, Riz Dar.
Pakistani food at it’s best http://zaynarestaurant.co.uk
Riz Dar, head chef & owner
Love a biryani, often served only at weekends
Jumbo prawns
Mocktails
HOW ARE YOU FEELING IN LOCKDOWN??
Trapped, submerged?
Can’t breathe…
Home alone?
Black child in a white world
Extended paternity & maternity leave
Will restaurants ever re-open?
MORE AWARDS - ASSOCIATION OF PHOTOGRAPHERS SERIES
One glow of light from the Lockdown was having another series in the AOP awards, several successive years and about 100 individual images since I began my career.
I rate the AOP awards as the best photo awards as the judges are either photographers, art buyers or clients that commission photography. Too many awards are judged by people who may not be the most knowledgeable on photography.
Sour dough
Seeded batch
Waste-less bread, such a good use of old bread
CORONAVIRUS
Despite the coronavirus we are still working from my environmentally controlled studio. Surfaces are wiped down with disinfectant and no one is allowed in accept for our team.
We’re all prepared to shoot product shots remotely or with an art director present.
We hope to see you soon
MORE AWARDS at INTERNATIONAL COLOR AWARDS & PINK LADY FOOD AWARDS
Delighted to have won the International Color Awards for the 3rd consecutive and nominated for the Pink Lady Food Awards.
Octopuses Garden in the Shade is part of a 3 image collage shot as a series of tests with Italian School Dinners and Cooked Mussels
GREENE KING IPA
Greene King IPA has always been a huge supporter of British sport.
This summer sponsoring the English Cricket and rugby team with their success in WorldCups.
My poster, press and social media campaign using 6 images focussed on sporty chats in pubs over a beer.
INDIAN SUMMER - TOMATOES
RAY MEARS BOOK COVER & RECIPES
Hugh shot bush craft expert Ray Mears new book cover for Bloomsbury Publishing. Wilderness Chef will be available to buy on Amazon in the spring
On very wet day, deep in Ashdown Forest Ray started a fire, gutted and boned a whole wild salmon with his bare hands.
Ray is a lovely man, a black belt 7 dan judo artist who trained with Terence Donovan in the Paddington gym. They became good friends with huge mutual respect of each others craft. Terry loved military precision so would have loved Ray’s skills.
Getting the fire going in the rain.
A fresh wild salmon cooked over birch wood tastes fantastic, especially when you have been standing in the rain for a few hours.
NEW MULTIGRAIN CAMPAIGN
With the harvest season in full swing Hugh was asked to shoot a campaign for Westmill showing the Elephant Atta product, multigrains and their wonderful chapatis. The brief was to shoot the 7 multigrains on a natural kitchen work top scenario
The campaign consists of posters, social media and stop frame animation.
THANK YOU DAVID MELLOR
It is an honour shooting this with David Mellor. I have always loved their designs.
MR. McGREGOR'S VEG' PATCH
Perfect veg patch with wonderful green home-grown rocket.
Thank you to the Slow Food Movement and Soil Association #vegetarian #vegan
VAGABONDS – a day working in a wine bar!!
Spending a summer’s day shooting cool beer, chilled wine and food on the canal at Paddington was a dream come true. Thank you to all the great people at Vagabond’s Wine Bar.
Fresh radishes
Cheese board
Pain au chocolat. You can’t better French pastries, all that butter!
Skashuka, love this dish
Salmon toasts
Turkish eggs, a decent reason with Imam Biyaldi to go to Turkey. (and kebabs!!)
MORE ITALIAN INGREDIENTS
After Hugh's winning series Italian Ingredients at the AOP Awards it was lovely shooting another lovely project with Sacla, one of the great Italian and British food businesses supplying Italian produce.
Wild garlic
Parmesan
Quadratto di Asti peppers
Fresh n’duja bruschetta
Loving n’duja whether on pizza or pasta
Courgette pasta
A huge thank you to the Romans for giving the planet these wonderful ingredients