The shortlist for the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2014 has been released so I can post the seven images of mine that were selected from more than 6,000 entrants. Of the 400 shortlisted images, just seven in each category have been chosen for the final. The exhibition at The Mall Galleries in London of April 23rd, 2014. Three of my images made it into the final but, as yet, I am not at liberty to tell you which ones. You can choose your three favourites and discover if you were right on April 23rd.
I was pleased to hear that two images taken in Thailand were chosen. The image above was selected for the Food in Action category (the category I won last year) and is of a man cooking pad Thai. It was snapped in Ayutthaya.
The Food in the Field category image is of salt fields in Udon Thani province, northeast Thailand.
Shortlisted for the Cream of the Crop category was a stack of vegetables at the morning market in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
Also from Sri Lanka, this time in Negombo, is a woman with a tuna. The image was selected for the Food in the Street category.
From Cambodia and in the Food and its Place category is the above image of a fisherman bringing his catch ashore in the beach town of Sihanoukville.
At New Year I went off-road motorcycling in northern Laos, as I do each year, and captured this rather disturbing image of a leopard cat that had been poached. It was being sold at the side of the road. The woman selling it was uncomfortable with my presence and in fact covered the cat up. I chatted with her a while and, determined to get the shot whether she like it or not, pulled back the cover and snapped. The shooting of wildlife for food in Laos is a huge problem. To be honest, the woman and her leopard cat (she also had wild deer) is just the tip of the iceberg. The big issue is organised poaching and the animals heading straight to kitchens in China. This image was shortlisted for the Politics of Food category.
Finally in the Food for Sale category, a group of delightful lads with their live bamboo rats on strings for sale at the side of the road in northern Laos. The rats, I might add, seemed less than delighted by the experience!
Photography competitions are a curious thing. On one hand, it is always great to be selected but, in my case at least, it’s usually not my favourite images that make it through. It is, after all, someone else’s opinion. And so it is in this case. If you asked me to pick three images from the seven above, they would all be different from those chosen by the judges for the final. You can see the full shortlist here . Remember, just seven from each category will be in the final. I have to say, there are some cracking images from other entrants. Good luck to you all. I particularly like the images in Food Portraiture category. It’s not something I’ve explored but I do hope try my hand at the dark arts of food porn over the coming months, time allowing.