Features
What’s for dinner? Sucre Sale can help!
When discussing the quality of stock imagery, one will often hear and use the word "fresh." The word conveys all of the positive attributes a stock image should have; new, clean, exciting. In the category of food photography, the adjective carries even more significance as one can see in the new food photography catalogue cum cooking magazine recently published by the Paris-based stock agency, Sucre Sale/Photocuisine. Issue #1 of Sucre Sale food photography magazine, titled “Photocuisine,” features beautifully executed imagery of a wide selection of food, from clear and simple images of raw fruits and vegetables to more complex still-lifes of salads, pasta dishes, main courses and desserts. Throughout the magazine, Sucre Sale/Photocuisine's talented photographers maintain a consistent level of freshness in their artistic style, matching the apparent freshness of the subjects.In addition to great stock photos, the magazine features recipes for many of the enticing dishes depicted in it, providing a welcome and practical bonus to working designers who also need to think about what they're having for dinner. The company also licenses the recipes, including budgets and calorie counts, to publishers of cook-books and cooking magazines, more often in European markets such as France, Germany and Italy, than in the US and Canada.
Jennifer Jomard, who manages the international distribution for Sucre Sale/Photocuisine, says that demand for food imagery has grown significantly in the last several years. She sees many reasons for this surge in both editorial and advertising uses of food photography. What and how a person eats have become emblematic of his or her lifestyle. At the same time, genetic engineering of agricultural products, the use of pesticides, the state of the food industry and the general health of the human population have become leading social and cultural issues of our time. In such circumstances, other food specialist companies, such as StockFood, based in Germany and the US, and FoodPix, a brand now owned by Jupiter Images, also appear to thrive in today’s market.
Food photographers Pierre Hussenot and Pierre Cabannes, recognized the value of food imagery to the publishing and advertising industries when they founded Sucre Sale/Photocuisine in 2000. They have since compiled a collection of approximately 100,000 rights managed food images representing the work of over one hundred photographers. Jomard is quick to point out, however, that more than with almost any other subject, food imagery requires close collaboration between photographer and stylist. Expert food stylists, who have the skills necessary to "prepare" delicate meals for a shoot under usually intense lights and heat, are the unsung heroes of this art form. Naturally, when photographing a prepared dish, a good chef must do the cooking, adding a third collaborator to the effort.
Sucre Sale currently has partners and representatives worldwide. To find the Photocuisine agent in your territory, you may contact Jennifer Jomard by email at or .
Posted in: Features, Stock Art Buyers, Stock Photo Companies
