In the spirit of celebrating creativity, we invite talented individuals from around the globe to delve into our Q&A on the whats and hows of their creative journey. This episode is dedicated to the London-based director and photographer Scott Grummett, known for his exceptional ability to bring food and drink to life through his vibrant, mouth-watering visuals and his innovative approach to capturing culinary artistry.
How would you describe what you do?
I am a photographer and director who likes to make you hungry. That is at the core of everything I do. I like making films and imagery that feel real, taking on small details that add soul and relatability whether that’s in the food itself or human interaction. I work primarily in advertising, solving problems for clients and agencies especially with territories, formats and deciphering a matrix of outputs.
Ultimately I’m here to make things that are both creative and tasty.
How did you get started?
I’ve done a bit of time in bars and kitchens making me ultimately a food person who now does film, which I think helps me have a different view point in what is a unique niche. I started in stills, assisting some high profile photographers but I was always eager to shoot and my income was always split between shooting and assisting. I couldn’t really wait to get going.
I started shooting still life for things like Wired Magazine and had an agent at the time that worked with a lot of more rock and roll brands, so as a food person I was shooting for brands like Johnnie Walker and restaurants like Sketch rather than going down the editorial food line. I think this gave me a more diverse portfolio. I was really excited about food so contacted restaurants and chefs I thought were cool and ended up just collaborating with people I like, restaurants like Honest Burger that were on the rise and we managed to create some beautiful imagery that got noticed and got me more work. I think making cool stuff, show it to enough people and they might pay you to make cool stuff for them, that is really all there is in this industry.
From there I met some fantastic people who wanted to make some films based on my stills work. I learnt the film side quickly and the reel has grown to a point where I’m now working with brilliant clients like Lurpak, McDonald’s and M&S with some incredibly talented people.
I split my time between stills and film and often projects that encompass both. I think doing film has made my stills better and doing stills has made my film work better too.
