How I got into food photography

I was born and raised in France, in my family (like in a lot of families), we all love good food, we all love to eat and cook and bake and share all that food with friends and family.

I reckon it was already a good setting for me to develop a special love with everything food-related right?

I learned to cook and bake when I was a teenager, to help my mum first and learn some of her recipes, then when I moved to my own place, I was cooking and baking for me and my flatmate, and every time we had friends coming over. The love for food comes first from the love for sharing, I love cooking and baking, it's my happy place, but even more when I get to share it. If you're one of my close friends, you'll have tried at least one of my pancake, or cookie or muffin, that's the deal.

I also had my first camera when I was 16, but the two only joined forces way later, when I was in fine art school. At that time I was spending a lot of time on the Internet to find inspiration, anywhere, photography wasn't yet my main medium. And at some point it clicked, and a part of my diploma, was actually about fake food, yes you heard me, my first proper food photography work was about making fake food, look real, see below…

The other part of my work was related to crimes and serial killers, but that's a subject for another post… (or not)

I then started to take some pictures of the food I was making, zero styling, average photo skills, nothing fancy.

Diploma in the pocket, I moved to a bigger city, did the second year of bachelor in photography, and started to meet people in the photography industry. I had stopped my work on fake food and went all in the criminal stuff, and this is how I met a good friend and stylist that guided me to where I am now, how? I was looking for models for a project, trying to create portrait patterns in relation with how serial killers pick their victims (sorry went back into the subject quite quickly) and we became friends. We started to work together on fashion and jewellery shoots and decided to try just once, to do a food shoot, winging it 100%. And it was amazing, and that passion never went away.

With that newly discovered passion, not shooting just the food, I started trying to take pictures with a bit more styling, trying, making my bf impatient because he actually wanted to eat…

Then I moved to England (and in Newcastle) in August 2016, and there I was, starting from scratch, in a town and country I didn't know anybody. It still took me a while to figure out I wanted to be a commercial photographer, but when I did, I went on the search bar on Facebook, and typed something like "foodie Newcastle", found a group, and ask "Hey, I'm French, I'm a photographer, I'm new in Newcastle, anybody is starting a business in food and would like some photos?"

Which is how I met Severine, a fellow French living in Newcastle, she's a Baker and needed some nice pictures of her work.

I had so much fun, and so much freedom to do that, this was the start of everything that has happened for me so far, she encouraged me a lot, made me discover the inspire network Facebook group, where I met Louisa, who basically gave me my very first paid job. From there, I worked with Noveltea (the said very first paid job), that led me to work with Savour Magazine, Tiger Hornsby, go to San Diego… I do believe in luck, but I also believe that luck doesn't just happen, you need to provoke that luck, and if you love what you do, well it's easier to do the work. You want an example? I’ve got the perfect one for you, I was working at Noveltea’s launch party in Fenwick two years ago-ish, and while taking my pictures, trying to capture the vibe and fabulous ambiance of the moment, I see a lady coming in with a pile of magazines in her arms, me being nosy, at some point during the evening, I managed to have a look at said magazine, turns out, it’s Savour Magazine, brand new food and drink mag based in the North East, so I start looking for the lady that came in with them, and see Georga, at that moment, I’m not sure what got into me because I’m very not confident and quite shy, especially at that time. I went to her and say “Hi, I just wanted to introduce myself as I saw you bring those magazines, I’m Marion, I’m a photographer and I did the Noveltea’s pictures you might have seen” That’s all it took, well, this and my pictures were good so she had a reason to actually reach back to me, a year later I was with her shooting my way in San Diego, so you see, work + being at the right place at the right time + being bold enough but not obnoxious either = opportunities!

I'm extremely lucky to be able to do the job I'm doing and working with the people I'm working with, but I've worked for it to happen. I've asked, I've tried, I've also failed, but it's part of the game, and you learn, to do better, to trust your gut feeling, to work more efficiently, to be more curious, to be what you are, better every day.

How I started food Photography (and why?)

How I got into food photography