Out with the delicate and in with the dirty

It has become apparent that the tide may be turning in the ocean of food photography. The desire for clean and beautiful food photos is still there, don’t get me wrong, but within certain genres of restaurants this is just not working anymore. Take X-Upper for example, a fantastic new restaurant on Upper Street in Angel that is leading the “Sausage Revolution”. Although their dishes are colourful and look quite refined, it’s supposed to be indulgent, dirty and unpretentious. It’s our job to present that to future customers in a way that is true to X-Upper. A huge part of restaurant social media is about creating and maintaining a visual identity for a client and it’s up to the photographer to take a photograph that sells their ethos, not only with regards to their food but also to the atmosphere and personality of the brand.

To achieve this with X-Upper we first ditched minimalism, we want people to picture themselves here with friends enjoying a feast and a beer, not sitting in a Scandinavian garden of Eden. There is a time and place. We then introduced a human element, someone interacting with the dishes, and getting messy. This style of photography has been used by food bloggers for some time, specially when talking about street food. Sometimes you want a dish to look almost intimidating and there are certain foods that benefit from this style, e.g. burgers, hot dogs, kebabs and pizza. The importance of restaurant social media and keeping on top of trends has never been so important as it is right now. What type of content are people engaging with? Are people bored of clean lines and simplicity? Is it out with the delicate and in with the dirty? Every client is different and requires a different approach to restaurant social media.