What Winning IFEX Taught Me About Food Photography
We don't enter IFEX every year. When we do, we go in with one shot, one brief, one answer to one question. In 2024, that shot won Food Photographer of the Year.
This is what the year after taught us - about judging, about the work, about the things that don't change.
1. The image you remember isn't always the most technically perfect
It's the one with the most intent. When the category winners are put up on the wall at IFEX, the ones you walk back to three times aren't always the sharpest, the most retouched, or the most technically complex. They're the ones where you can feel the photographer's point of view.
2. Lighting is 60% of the image
Not literally of course, but if the light isn't right, everything else becomes harder. You can have beautifully styled food and a perfect composition but flat, harsh or inconsistent lighting can undo all of it.
3. Restraint wins
The category defining shots have restraint. They show you one thing, clearly and trust you to do the rest. The prop heavy, styling heavy, sauce on spoon with steam rising shots? They get forgotten by Tuesday.
4. AI-generated entries are arriving and they're easy to spot
They lack the small, specific imperfections that make food feel real. A drip on a plate, a crumb on a board, a smudge of oil on a knife - these are not accidents. They're the evidence that something real happened in a real kitchen.
5. The brief is everything
The winning shot at IMEX 2024 came from a brief from a collaborative project we'd been thinking about for six months
What this means for the work we do at the studio
Every shoot that comes through Still Hungry Studio gets the same treatment. We listen first. We ask the awkward questions. We write a brief that answers them. Then we shoot. Five lessons, one studio, twenty years of doing it.
IFEX 2024 Gold Awarded Image
