Giles Christopher, food photographer with an eye for detail and an eye for new tech, takes us behind the scenes of his switch from movies to stills and the art of balancing between food and wildlife photography.
Robert: What is your story prior to switching to food stills?
Giles: All I’ve ever known was the media industry, because that’s what my father and mother did. My dad was a producer – he worked on James Bond films, & ‘Raise The Titanic’. And my mum worked on ‘When Eight Bells Toll’, and ‘Where Eagles Dare’, amongst others – these were iconic films at the time. Even my brother is a producer for Marvel.
Ironically, I never really wanted to go into the film industry. At school, I wanted to be a wild-life cameraman, but that was never really encouraged. So I went to an art college and learned to be a draftsman – that’s where I discovered photography. I absolutely fell in love with it.
The natural progression from there was either stills or film camera work, which was a safer career at the time. So, I followed that route – loved it, but I always felt that there was something missing, and stills was something I always kept alongside as a hobby.
R: What was it like to give up a successful career as a focus-puller on some very big commercials and Pop Videos, and make the transition over to stills?
G: I worked on so many different Pop Videos in the 90s, commercials came later. I found it very hard to make the move up from focus puller to DoP, and I’d just started a family at the time, so it wasn’t the best time to make a move.
As the children got a bit older, and I was away with work so much, I thought ‘You know what, maybe this is the time to return to my first love – photography’.
via www.gileschristopher.co.uk
R: I don’t want to pigeonhole you, because we all get pigeonholed in this industry, but the main theme of your work is food. I’m just curious, do you think you can be a good food photographer if you’re not passionate about food?
G: Yeah, I think you can. First and foremost it’s about imagery, and story telling. I love making food, and other things, look fantastic. For me the term ‘foodie‘ means someone who can appreciate the provenance of the ingredients – how it’s made, the establishments it’s served in, and, obviously, how it tastes, and what it looks like. I guess that makes me a foodie.
We work with some top Michelin starred chefs and fantastic restaurants, so I can totally appreciate all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into it – it’s an impressive well-oiled machine.
R: Since transitioning to stills, can you tell me the biggest difference that you’ve encountered when working with small agencies – there are surely pros and cons to it?
G: Working directly with small agencies can be lucrative, and rewarding, but you have to work doubly hard to earn your fees, there’s no question about it. But the pros are – the turnaround, decision making, and approvals are all quicker with smaller teams.
Smaller agencies also have the flexibility to listen, and adjust to my input, making it a much more creative process.
R: How do you go about balancing client’s budgets and realistic aspirations? Do you find that their aspirations are realistic or not?
G: Sometimes I get sent Pinterest mood boards with completely contradictory looks, and I think ‘how am I actually going to interpret this into a brief – on their budget, and their timescale’?
What we like to know is what kind of a ballpark figure they’re looking at, before I start doing too much work. So we get a rough budget from them and work on the quotes, requirements, and deadlines.
Sometimes we might ask them to send over some products to have a look at, maybe do a test shoot which really helps with expectations – for me and the client.
I think clients’ expectations are generally really high for any given budget, probably because they don’t know the processes involved. They say ‘Oh, it’s just a shot of a burger’, it’s just a shot of a drink’. But it is all about educating them about the process behind the best burger or pouring shot to complement their brand, their campaign, and the season the images are going to be released for. There is quite a bit of hand-holding and gentle guidance going on behind the scenes.
