Items shown: studio lights · glycerine spray · matches · cotton wool · shoe polish · a camera · a hammer
Interviewer: Photographs of food are all around us, in advertisements, magazines and cookbooks. Today's guest is Helena Palmer, who has made a highly successful career out of food photography. Welcome, Helena.
Helena: Thank you.
Interviewer: So how did you become involved in food photography – was your first interest the food or the photography?
Helena: Oh, definitely photography first. When I was quite young – 10 or 11 – I started using an old camera belonging to my father. I became fascinated with taking shots of people, my friends and my family in particular.
Interviewer: And were you also interested in the way food was presented – in restaurants, for example?
Helena: My parents – not having much money – rarely took us to restaurants. But my mother was an excellent cook. I used to take shots of her in the kitchen, and also some of the special things that she'd prepare – birthday cakes, and things like that.
Interviewer: And you left school quite young.
Helena: Yes, I wasn't very gifted academically, so at 16 I left school and went to help out at a local photographic studio. It was easy to find a photographer wanting to take on an assistant for no pay! For a couple of years I lived at home with my parents, who supported me financially. And I was very lucky that the photographer who took me on taught me a lot. She was really the first person to encourage me to take up food photography. She always let me help out with 'food shoots' – wedding cakes, publicity photos for local restaurants, and so on. Then, when I was 18, there was a major photography competition being held in London and one of the categories was 'Celebrations'. So I entered a portfolio of photographs – just for the experience, I thought.
Interviewer: And you won.
Helena: That's right. At that time, I was the youngest person in the competition to win any of the major categories.
Interviewer: Now, it's sometimes said that photographing food is the most difficult job for a professional photographer. Is that really true?
Helena: It can certainly be very difficult to make it look appetising. Food photography is all done in studios, and the biggest problem is the heat produced by the lights. It can take a very long time to get everything exactly right for a shot, and by that time a chef's carefully prepared salad might look limp or a cream cake becomes a mound of wet sponge.
Interviewer: So how do you get round that?
Helena: Well, firstly, the food in photographs used to illustrate cookbooks and magazine articles isn't always entirely authentic. We have a number of techniques to help us out. First, a lot of the items in the photograph can be set up early – glasses, cutlery, flowers, perhaps. And then we put in some material to substitute for the food – something with the same size, shape and colour. Often we just make this quickly in the studio from cardboard or any other material available, and paint it.
Interviewer: Personally, I prefer food not made of cardboard!
Helena: Don't we all! In the meantime, a food stylist prepares the food to be photographed. As soon as I'm satisfied with the setting, lighting, and so on, we take out the artificial food and put in the real thing. But the food starts to dry out very quickly. So I generally have with me a spray bottle containing glycerine mixed with water. Glycerine is a liquid, completely colourless, that's often used to sweeten food. It's great for keeping food looking shiny and moist. Another difficulty is that food is sometimes meant to be hot and steaming, but of course by the time we photograph it, it's completely cold. The only thing to do in that case is to create steam from elsewhere. We use cotton wool balls soaked in water and then put in a microwave. These steam nicely for a couple of minutes, and we position them so that it looks like it's the food steaming. Something else I wouldn't be without is a small blowtorch.
Interviewer: What do you use that for?
Helena: Hundreds of things – quickly melting butter over vegetables, browning toast… A technique that might be used in photographing meat is to take a piece of, say, chicken, use the blowtorch for a while so that it's nicely golden brown, and then spray some glycerine on the outside to make it look moist. It looks great in the photo, but it might be raw on the inside.
Interviewer: Helena, it's been fascinating talking to you. Thank you so much for coming into the studio.
Helena: My pleasure.
I started using an old camera belonging to my father.
The food in photographs used to illustrate cookbooks isn't always entirely authentic.
And then we put in some material to substitute for the food.
b People tickets for the cup final can expect to pay over 100 euros.
b The Internet is bringing about a degree of cultural change for centuries.not seen
b All the passengers in the train crash have been released from hospital.injured
b Our teacher, a huge pile of textbooks, came hurrying into the room.carrying
b Some jewellery to the Queen has been stolen from Buckingham Palace.belonging
b The woman the piano over there – is she your sister?playing
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2 The inquiry into the wreck of the oil tanker Panmax, (It sank off the southwest coast in 2014.), has produced its final report. The report, (It is to be published tomorrow.), is thought to show that the captain was mainly responsible for the collision with a smaller vessel.which sank off the southwest coast in 2014 / (to be) published tomorrow
3 Demonstrators (They have been protesting.) against the play Global Strife at the Crest Theatre, claiming it to be 'anti-religious', have succeeded in preventing it being performed. The theatre management, (They were advised by police that security could not be guaranteed.), cancelled last night's performance. On Thursday, a number of demonstrators (They broke through police lines.) caused damage to the theatre and terrified members of the audience.protesting / advised by police that security could not be guaranteed / who broke through police lines
4 Researchers in New Zealand are developing a new drug (It might prevent memory loss in older people.). A group of 20 elderly people (They were suffering from dementia.) were given the drug over a two-year period, and results showed a significant slowing down in memory decline. The drug, (It is derived from a plant. The plant is found only in New Zealand.), will now be tested on a larger group before being made more widely available.which might prevent memory loss / suffering from dementia / derived from a plant found only in New Zealand