You might think a food photographer spends all of their time capturing close-up images of delectable plates, but food photography is much broader than that.
I was fortunate enough to talk to photographer, Josep Reverendo, about a project he photographed at Barcelona’s historic La Boqueria market. It’s a great example of how the worlds of food photographers, street photographers, and documentary photographers can collide. Here's the story of Josep's stunning photo project, in his own words…
This article was first published in the August 2024 edition of N-Photo: The Nikon Magazine.
I'm not a professional, but photography is my passion. I’ve always been attracted to the arts such as painting, comic books and cinema. As a teenager I would paint in oils, but gave it up due to a lack of time. Photography, however, has stuck around. First I shot on analog, then digital. Consciously or not, when we take pictures, I think we are influenced by visual culture. The aesthetic roots of my photography come from painters like van Gogh and Goya; illustrators such as Hergé and Raymond Briggs; photographers including Cartier-Bresson and Vivian Maier; and even filmmakers, with Hitchcock and John Ford among them.
Light and bright
After a few years shooting on analog cameras, I finally switched to the Nikon D90 and digital photography in 2010. This inspired me to start my urban photography project in Barcelona.
Over a decade later, I replaced my faithful DSLR and made the move to mirrorless, with the Nikon Z5. But my D90 served me well and is the sole camera I used to create this project.
I paired the camera with the Nikon AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8G. The 1.5x crop factor offers an angle of view similar to that of a ‘nifty fifty’ on a full-frame camera, which creates a natural-looking frame because it delivers a similar perspective to that of the human eye.
But what really makes this little prime stand out is its fast f/1.8 aperture, enabling it to render bright images with attractive, bokeh-filled backgrounds. It won’t break the bank, either, and can be picked up for around $100/£100 on the used market.
A fresh take
The Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria – or La Boqueria – is a world-famous market in Barcelona [1]. Its origins date back to the end of the 19th century and, to this day, it’s crammed with a vibrant assortment of fresh produce, and the hustle and bustle of vendors and customers.
- In street photography, the best quality of an image is immediacy, as if the skin that protects the viewer from the scene is being taken away.
- Try to capture the beauty of special moments that only exist in a split second.
- You can use shallow depths of field to create images in which the subjects are not fully described, but insinuated, suggested. This can create a powerful sense of atmosphere.
Unsurprisingly, this hive of activity makes it a must-visit destination for photographers. The historic market covers a huge area that spans over 2,500 square metres and accommodates around 300 stalls, all brimming with colour and flavor [2].
Its spectacular iron structure means a large portion of the market is undercover and, while it isn’t dark inside, the reduced daylight made it the perfect place to test out my fast prime.
And of course, wide apertures mean plenty of background blur and beautiful discs of bokeh. For this project, I wanted to go a step further with my use of bokeh. Here the blur isn’t just the backdrop, it’s a secondary protagonist – almost as vital as the main subject.
By focusing on the foreground, I’ve intentionally framed scenes of interest within the background blur to build a narrative. This creates imagery in which subjects aren’t totally clear [3]. Instead, they are insinuated, suggested. This creates a powerful atmosphere.
I like color and black-and-white imagery equally. However, in this series, color made sense so I could capture the cosmopolitan atmosphere and exuberance of the food. Undoubtedly, food is the main protagonist of these images: colorful fruits, fresh fish and vibrant chilled juices [4].
Market method
In scenes with artificial light, it’s important to achieve an accurate white balance to preserve natural-looking colors. The color balance of RAW images can be tweaked easily in post-production. But if you choose to shoot JPEG, then selecting the right white balance preset or even manually tweaking your camera's kelvin meter is essential.
Despite my lens’ fast f/1.8 aperture, I chose to narrow it down slightly – by a stop – to f/2.5. By increasing the depth of field slightly, I had a little more play in point of focus and ultimately ended up with more reliably sharp subjects [5].
This was crucial in capturing the ‘decisive moment’ – that moment when all the compositional elements of a scene come into harmony. A second before or a second later and the scene is no longer the same.
This creates imagery in which subjects aren’t totally clear. Instead, they are insinuated, suggested
It can prove a little tricky to compose so close to the edge of the frame. You can either use single-point AF to physically move the focus point over your desired subject, or use AF-S or back-button focus to employ the focus and recompose method (lock focus first, then recompose from exactly the same position).
The latter is particularly useful if you need to react to a moment quickly.
In my images, the human anecdote is very important, I always attempt to capture the personality of people. I’m interested in the market as a part of life and as a living and changing spectacle. Details help the image to speak and I love to tell stories about life through my photography.
I particularly enjoy the beauty of special moments that only exist for a moment. I try to immortalize them with the camera so they can be examined and show that seemingly mundane moments are not always as simple as they might look when they fly by in reality.
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Want to see more of Josep's great work? I just love this cinematic night shoot! Plus, here's the best camera for food photography and the best camera for street photography.
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