Who Are Production Paradise?

Billed as promoting the world’s best creativity and services and with more than 128,000 people on their database Production Paradise are a force to be reckoned with. Many of our past finalists promote their work through the organisation so we decided to talk to Marc Charach a little more about what it is that Production Paradise can do to help food photographers market themselves.

Q1: Tell us a little about the background of Production Paradise

Production Paradise was formed in 2003, with the sole purpose to be the world's number 1 online directory and showcase for advertising professionals and services in the photo and film industry. We understood the need for top level creative professionals within advertising photography and film to be seen by the right kind of industry clients, such as Art Buyers from advertising agencies, magazine Photo Editors, Producers, Art Directors and major brand clients. We developed our online directory and digital magazines (Spotlight Magazine and Showcase Magazine) to provide a way for professionals and services to not only be found, but for their latest work to be promoted. The way we differ from other websites, is that we only include the best people and companies, who we are in direct contact with and with whom we know will deliver the highest possible standard of work that Production Paradise and our international subscribers expect. We now have over 128,000 advertising industry subscribers from the world's top agencies and companies, who benchmark Production Paradise as the place to find the best international photo and film talent and production services.

Q2: How can a food photographer best utilise your services?

Our online magazine "Spotlight Food & Drink Photography & Motion" is one of our most popular magazines for Art Buyers and other industry clients. Once a photographer, or indeed a filmmaker who specialises in shooting food, are included in the quarterly edition of the magazine, they will be seen worldwide by some of the best eyes in the business, which generally leads to the kind of work that every food photographer wants. Our subscribers include advertising agencies such as Ogilvy, AKQA, JWT, Leo Burnett, BBDO, Wieden + Kennedy, McCann Erickson, Saatchi & Saatchi and many more.

Q3: What key trends are you seeing and enjoying most in food photography at the moment?

We are currently seeing a desire for food photography to represent its nutritional benefits and natural ingredients. These days consumers are much more in tune with what goes into their food and understandably it's important for this to be shown within the image. There is also a shift away from the classic tabletop aerial view of food and more to a focus on lifestyle.

Q4: Are there any key pieces of advice you would give to someone starting out in the business of food photography?

Food photography is an art form and an extremely difficult skill to master, but first and foremost the photographer should have a real passion for food! Something we often hear from the food photographers we speak to, is that substitutes in food photography should not be used and if the food tastes good, it will look good.

Q5: We would love to hear which images and/or films you most enjoyed in the 2015 finalist exhibition.

We enjoyed so many of the images and thought that the quality was outstanding. The stand out photo for us was Maja Smend's image, Mondrian Battenberg, which was the winner of our own category "Production Paradise Food off the Press", in fact all of the finalists within our category were wonderful. We also enjoyed the winning shot by David Griffen, Drina Cabral's winning shot from the category Politics of Food, and Jonathan Gregson's delicious Caramel Pears.

If you are a food photographer, Production Paradise is offering a 10% discount to Pink Lady® Food Photographer of the Year 2016readers, on their packages. Please contact them on promotions@productionparadise.com for more details and mention the special code Pinklady®_2015_Offer