Food, People & Brand Stories: Creating Images for Brands, Press and Editorial Content
Antonella Vecciu founder of Bocconcini Bakery
I’m a London-based photographer with a slightly unusual combination of loves: food, people and telling the story behind a brand.
I work with food and drink brands, businesses, founders, chefs and PR agencies to create photography that looks great, but is also useful. Images that can work across a website, social media, a campaign, a press release or an editorial feature.
Because sometimes you need more than a beautiful photograph. You need the right photograph.
Creating images with the bigger picture in mind
A food brand might need beautiful, carefully styled food photography, but also images that tell the story around the product.
A founder or chef might need portraits that feel natural and relaxed rather than overly posed.
A PR agency might need a set of images that can work across a website, social media, press releases and publications.
A brand launch might need food, people, environment and details all photographed with a consistent look.
And sometimes, the aim is for the images to look like they could sit naturally in a magazine, rather than immediately looking like advertising.
This is where my background in the press has become a really useful part of the way I work.
An editorial eye from 11 years at OK! Magazine
Before working primarily with brands and businesses, I spent 11 years at OK! Magazine, producing photography in the fast-paced world of weekly magazines.
It taught me to look for the image that tells the story, but also, perhaps more importantly, fits the page.
When you're working with editorial photography, the photograph isn't always simply going to be dropped onto a page exactly as it was shot. You need to think about where the headline might go, how much space the story needs and how the picture will work alongside everything else on the page.
A well-considered image can give a publication more room to promote your brand. That might mean deliberately shooting with negative space so text can be placed over the image, or creating both portrait and landscape options so the picture can be used in different formats.
Those are considerations I still bring to commercial photography today.
Thinking about your image library, not just today's photograph
When I'm shooting for a brand, I'm thinking beyond the individual hero image.
Could we shoot something so it can be cut out and used separately? Can I keep the edges clean enough that the background can be extended later? Would leaving a little more space between the props give you more flexibility when the image is designed into something else?
I might shoot the same subject in both portrait and landscape. I might create a beautifully styled scene that works as a complete photograph, while also making sure individual elements could potentially be used elsewhere.
These little decisions can make a big difference to how useful your images become.
The result is a library of photography that gives you options, rather than a collection of images that only work in one particular layout.
Food photography and natural portraits
I’m a funny combination of someone who genuinely loves food photography and someone who really enjoys photographing people.
With food, I love the detail and precision of getting everything just so. The styling, the light, the texture, the little adjustments that make something look completely camera-ready.
With people, I love the interaction. There is something wonderfully collaborative about having another person in front of my lens. My job isn't just to press the shutter at the right moment. It's to create an environment where someone can relax, feel comfortable and forget, as much as possible, that they're being photographed.
That calm can make all the difference to a portrait.
Whether I'm photographing a chef, founder, team member or someone who would much rather be doing almost anything else than having their photograph taken, I want the finished images to feel like them.
Photography that works for both brands and press
One of the reasons I enjoy commercial photography so much is that a single shoot can create a really useful bank of images for different parts of a business.
Depending on the brief, your images might be used for:
press releases and PR
editorial coverage
websites
social media
LinkedIn
campaigns
marketing materials
newsletters
printed materials
presentations and other brand communications
Planning for these uses from the beginning means we're not just creating photographs that look good in a gallery. We're creating images that can actually earn their keep.
London food, portrait and brand photography
I'm a London-based photographer, based in West London, and work with clients across London and beyond.
I have a home studio in West London, but I'm equally happy working on location. That might mean a restaurant, kitchen, workplace, studio, event space or someone's home, depending on what makes sense for the story we're trying to tell.
I photograph food and drink, people, products and brands, often combining different types of photography within the same shoot.
Looking for a London photographer for food, people or brand content?
If you need photography for a food or drink brand, a founder or team, a new product, a PR campaign or an ongoing bank of brand content, I'd love to hear what you're working on.
I can help with everything from the initial ideas and shot list through to styling, photography and creating a final library of polished, natural images that you can actually use.