Lunch on a Hillside in Catalonia
Last summer Lidl sent me to Spain. Specifically, to a hillside in the Garrotxa — a volcanic landscape in the foothills of the Pyrenees that I’d never heard of before the brief landed, and now is definitely on my hit list for the campervan.
Advertising Food Photography in Spain
The subject was Noël Alimentaria, a Spanish charcuterie producer and new Lidl supplier. My first commission for Lidl outside the UK, and a very different aesthentic from the Scottish salmon farmers, bakers and cheese makers I’ve shot for them before. But their passion for the product was exactly the same – it’s a common language to so many artisan food producers the world over.
The Recce
I flew into Girona on the Sunday and drove up into the hills to recce the location to meet Lidl’s Creative Content Lead Vicki Foster. Mas Les Comelles is a farmhouse estate above the village of Joanetes — terraces cut into the hillside, an old open-sided barn with the valley dropping away behind it, and the kind of light that makes you want to get up before dawn. After the recce we spent Sunday evening in the nearby town of Olot planning the shoot whilst the locals danced amongst the tables in the town square.
The Shoot
The shoot was Vicki’s concept: close-up food shots of charcuterie on boards, lifestyle images of lunch in action, and portraits of CEO Albert Boix Bosch with the product. The food stylist — whose name I have managed to lose, agh — had prepared a beautiful table on the terrace. Her work was brilliant and she obviously had plenty of experience with advertising food photography. Some of the company’s executive team were in for a meeting that day and stepped in as talent for the lifestyle shots as they ate their lunch.… 100% authentic.
The barn made the perfect backdrop. The valley did the rest. Eating lunch at that table, in that setting, with that charcuterie — it was one of those days when you have to pinch yourself.
