Critical contextualization of my work - inspiration talk - food stylists close to home

Speaking of food, I am in love with cooking, eating and photographing it. What is more, I have a few favourite authors that I have looked up to though the years. Naturally, some of them are Bulgarian or from Eastern Europe and do a lot of images that are close to my style of work or (in most cases) they do something I dream of creating.

When I selected the topic of food photography for this module, the first thing that came to my mind was the work of Eva Toneva. She is an amazing food stylist and cook from Bulgaria and I have been in love with her work for more than 8 years, ever since the day my mother discovered her website while looking for a recipe on the net.

Eva Toneva's work makes my mouth water each time I look at her images. A few weeks ago, while doing another assignment, I came across her website once again and was stunned by her technique.

Technically her images are very good and she works in her own studio, using mostly artificial light - something I would love to learn myself. I love the way she manages to show dishes as they are - beautiful and tasty and still keep her own signature style. Her images are recognizable and interesting and make the viewer want to cook the dish. I want my food images to have the same qualities since the purpose of the Culture Crossroads project is to promote Balkan culture. 

Fig. 1 – Liutika - TONEVA, Eva - 2016

So far, so good, but during some of the webinars both tutors and students noticed that even though Eva Toneva is a great artist, what she does in not that unique. Her images are amazing and I love them very much - would like to be able to take images like this. However, they are not that unique in terms of how the content is displayed. If one searches in Google, one can find hundreds of images that look almost identical. Eva Toneva may have a signature style, that is true BUT her style is not that distinct if multiple food images are placed side by side. 

So, I needed something better and more creative if I wanted my project to stand out. This, of course, would not mean that I would stop creating images like the two I selected here - on the contrary, I would love to be able to make the viewer want to taste the dish since I aim at popularizing food and culture. To do that, I need something more than the plain stock images I am used to creating. 

What is more, a distinctive style would make me easily recognizable and attract more attention to my project. Images like the ones Eva Toneva makes would be present in my portfolio and will serve as illustrations to the recipes, that is for sure. But they cannot be the main focus. 

I adore Eva Toneva's natural-looking images. as if she has taken a snapshot of her plate or her table, luring the viewer to reach and take a bite. I love her mastery to show different textures and forms, as well as colours and flavours (see the image below). Her lighting skills are also a thing to admire. To be unique though, I would need something more. 

Fig. 2 – Pasta alla Norma - TONEVA, Eva - 2018

List of figures:

Figure 1 – TONEVA, Eva - Liutika – 2016
Available at: http://www.evatoneva.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=898:chutney&catid=2:osnovniiastia&Itemid=4 [accessed 24 August  2018]

Figure 2 – TONEVA,Eva – Pasta alla Norma – 2018 Available at:http://www.evatoneva.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=1 [accessed 24 August  2018]

References:
http://www.evatoneva.com [accessed 24 August 2018] – Eva Toneva’s website