It is said that ‘we eat with our eyes’, and sometimes this phrase is completely and literally true. The appearance of food is key to generating appetite, and that is why food photography It is a booming sector within the artistic world and haute cuisine. An international competition, Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Yearis responsible for recognizing the best gastronomic images from around the world, allowing us to take a walk through the five continents based on still lifes, portraits and landscapes.
This contest is aimed at professionals and amateurs from all over the world, and highlights the growing importance of gastronomic photography. Since its first edition was held in 2011, this contest It has become one of the most important in the sector and each edition stands out for the high quality of the works presented. They are images of great aesthetics, but they go further and invite the viewer to delve into a storylearn about other realities and customs and also, sometimes, offer a critical look at reality.
The contest has more than 30 categories: people, products, wedding photos, styling, photos taken with a mobile phone, street food, cakes… In addition to still lifes or photos of dishes, there are also awards that capture the work associated with food in countries on the five continents.
Red Bean Paste Balls, by Chinese photographer Zhonghua Yang, has won the overall Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year 2024 award. The image, which had won first in the Champagne Taittinger Food for Celebration category, was taken in rural Xiangshan, Zhejiang, during the busy preparations for a feast for the Spring Festival, also known as Lunar New Year. The photograph has captured the tradition of preparing dim sumsuch as red bean dumplings, steamed rice cakes and glutinous rice cake, each of which has a legacy of traditional craftsmanship.
Spain has achieved great success in this year’s contest; They obtained a total of five finalist images, including a category winner. The Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year jury has distinguished the Spanish photographer Virginia Morán as winner of the category Food at the Table by Pork, Laughter, and Red Wine (‘Pork, laughter and red wine’). The true protagonist does not appear in the frame of this award-winning photograph, Antón Arias ‘Trunk’a legend of León gastronomy that this same year closed Los Arándanos, a temple of León gastronomy.
“Chef Antón says goodbye to his beloved restaurant, after 30 years of service, inviting their closest family and friends to a simple, but heartfelt banquet. The main dish, from a pig slaughter: liver with onions, served with sourdough bread and a good Rioja. A moving farewell to a culinary era full of laughter, joy and good red wine,” Morán explains about the photo.
“My photographic narrative explores routine moments in which apparently nothing extraordinary happens. For some, these moments may seem insignificant but in reality they represent the essence of life, everyone’s life,” explains the photographer herself on her website.
It is not the only Spanish entry in the competition. In this case, in the Women Photographers categoryanother representative from Spain has taken the second prize with her snapshot ‘Last Supper of Women’, in which she represents this classic biblical scene, replacing the male protagonists of Jesus and the apostles with women, captured by Jullianne Medeiros Domingos.
