A haunting image, Red Bean Paste Balls, by Chinese photographer Zhonghua Yang, has won the overall prize of Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year 2024, the world’s leading celebration of food photography and film. The Chinese photographer has been crowned Overall Winner of Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year 2024 and awarded the prize of £5,000 (GBP) for his image capturing a woman entering a room to add her latest creation to a mountain of steaming dim sum, all prepared for a feast to celebrate Lunar New Year. To see the online gallery of all the 2024 finalists, visit the Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year website. Entries for the 2025 edition of the competition will open later this year in September. More info: pinkladyfoodphotographeroftheyear.com | Instagram | Facebook | x.com We asked Barbora to tell us how she comes up with the concepts for her food styling, and we learned that the photographer’s biggest inspiration has always been nature and its seasons, seasonal produce and art. Baretic elaborated: “In winter I can’t wait for the first flowers to poke out of the ground, carefully looking at first buds and patiently waiting for the trees to bloom. I then think about what cake or tart I could make and pair it with flowers that are in season. I love using edible flowers on my cakes like lavender, lilac, elderflowers or pansies. In summer I like baking with berries or juicy stone fruit. In autumn my favourite is to use local produce like butternut squash, pome fruits or photograph still lives. In winter I focus on Christmas and some moody photography. You can clearly see these transitions in my gallery on Instagram. I also enjoy going to galleries and exploring Dutch masterpieces. Dark and moody paintings have so much character and emotion and I adore the chiaroscuro style. This style uses contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts, affecting a whole composition. I use this style in my work a lot. But sometimes my inspiration is a vintage prop that I find in a market. I get an idea of what food would go perfectly with it.” Based on my answers, I start to visualise the setup. This saves me lots of time. Once my cake is baked and decorated I start setting up the scene. Sometimes it’s all built in my head already, sometimes I start putting props on the table and build the scene step by step.” Baretic also added: “It’s difficult to answer this question as it all depends on the setup and my imagination.” But now (from my own experience) I learned how to save time by being organised and prepared ahead. Sometimes I bake my cake one day and style the next day as I noticed I’m fresher. However, this means my family has to wait until the next day to eat the cake, which is not easy.” Follow Bored Panda on Google News! Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda! Please use high-res photos without watermarks Ooops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.
