A few months back I treated myself to a few hours in the studio to create in a different way to what I normally do. Always the thorough planner on a client shoot, I wanted to experiment with spontaneity and resourcefulness and just my favourite fruit and all of my studio tools at my disposal.


Being so used to working extensively on the creative direction and pre-production of each shoot, the idea of stepping on set with a blank page was a little scary at first (I was worried about how much slower it would make me and whether I would create anything good at all), but the whole point of this experiment and creative date with myself was to focus on the process of creating rather than the end result. To create more freely, experiment, and keep building on what was in front of me.

Fresh purple figs on a dark plate, one sliced open revealing red flesh, placed on a green linen napkin.
Fresh purple figs in a ceramic bowl with sliced figs on a marble surface in warm sunlight.
Sliced black figs stacked artistically beside a purple calla lily on a beige background with a halved fig showing red interior.
Fresh figs stacked on a wine glass, one sliced open revealing red interior, with honey dripping on purple background.

I had those beautiful figs and was drawn to recreate some of my memories from the South of France in late summer, where fruit bowls start to fill with fresh figs and their sweet and zingy bite make the perfect late afternoon snack.


I played around with stone surfaces reminding me of Provence, hard light, long shadows, and shine-through reflections. I made sure to capture the beautiful natural textures and colours of the fruit, played with the idea of sweet juiciness, and had a little fun creating a painting-inspired still life.


And the best part? Eating all of them at the end of the shoot!