Provençal fish stew bouillabaisse is no longer the poor Marseille fisherman’s food it once was. Some say if you don’t pay at least €75 per serving, its not the real deal. Other experts on France’s food scene argue that with cheap imitations, changing availability of ingredients and preparation shortcuts, it is no longer possible to find the genuine article at all. As photographer, I was sent to Marseille recently on assignment from Nice, with a Paris-based writer and a an eminent French food critic, to investigate. Continue reading…
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French wine under threat
The South of France has always been hot in summer. But scientists say that hot is getting hotter, and the effects of a changing climate are starting to be seen in France’s vineyards. What does this mean for the future of French wine? Stern magazine sent me on assignment to various locations in Provence as photographer, with their writer, to find out. While taking portraits and reportage photos for the feature, I learned just how long vines can live, how new grapes might start slipping into famous French cuvées and just how much some people will pay for a bottle of vintage wine. Continue reading…
London calling
I’ve been living in the South of France for over 10 years, and as an enthusiastic fan of France’s cuisine, I can say unequivocally that food doesn’t figure in the list of things I miss most about England. However, last month a corporate client commissioned me to cover a press trip to London for a group of travel writers from India, and so it was through fresh eyes as a travel and food photographer that I saw my homeland. In the event, I was happy to discover that the British food scene has been changing. Continue reading…
Food photographer’s cover story
Its probably best not to read this post if you’re hungry. On a recent magazine assignment, I left the French Riviera and headed to Marseille with a food & travel writer to investigate the city’s vibrant, migrant-influenced cuisine. Working as both food and portrait photographer, I had the privilege of photographing – and tasting – some extraordinary dishes that combine South of France flavours with African and Asian influences, and meeting the Marseillais who created them. One of the courses, from a lunch with no less than 23 of them, made the magazine cover. Continue reading…
Flower Power on the French Riviera
Yellow mimosa blooms bursting across the hills above Nice and Cannes herald the arrival of spring on the Côte d’Azur. Aside from the age-old fun of lobbing bouquets around at Nice carnival, the cultivation and use of flowers has long been important to the French Riviera and I’ve been assigned to photograph several editorial stories on the subject. I was one of very few, lucky photographers to be granted access to a secretive perfumery in Grasse last summer, just before an event that generated international press curiosity. A few months later, I faced rather different challenges when photographing French Riviera flower businesses for an in-flight magazine. Continue reading…
From Russia with love
The phone call came out of the blue one evening. “Is this Rebecca Marshall, South of France photographer? I would like to invite you to Russia”. Photo Parade Uglich, a prominent Russian photo festival, was being planned and with ‘France’ one of its themes, organisers were looking for a France-based food photographer to give a workshop there. So it was that I left Nice for an unexpected adventure that was to involve food photography, portraits and much, much more. Continue reading…
