Simi Jois | Turmeric n’ Spice

I feel extremely humbled to introduce Simi Jois from Turmeric n’ Spice blog at the common table. Her work reflects on the unforeseen ways in which the photographer makes visual connections with food. From a career in advertising she gradually transitioned into a food & landscape photographer. Her mother is a gifted artist and that resonates in her work too. Her specialisation is fine art photography where she transforms photographs into paintings. She has a very strong understanding of composition and light forms. Over the years she has developed a style that pushes the boundary between food photography and art. I am glad I got a chance to have this candid conversation.

Define photography from your perspective?

Photography to me is visual storytelling, not limited by sight and developed from imagination.

Whether blogging or editorial shoot, how do you prepare for a shot. What are the basic things which you prepare or are you haphazard in your approach?

It’s a bit of both. After I know the subject and have created a visual story – I take a mental note of the props and color palette I will use. Sometimes, I go in with no preconceived story.

While shooting, I try various combinations of styling, lighting, camera angle and setting, till I feel I have done justice to the visual story.

Sometimes, you plan one way and the finally image is completely different. Being flexible helps creativity and at other times having a loose structure makes life easier. For difficult subjects like ice-cream, where the hero is temperamental, a bit of planning saves a lot of time.

Is a light a slave of the weather? What do you do if it’s not right.

Natural light is a slave of the weather – yes!… but that makes the puzzle more exciting. Light determines my story and the morning of the day I have to shoot, I am very eager to get up to see what kind of light it is….. I try to weave the story around the light. I love the mystery around natural light. But, if the light is dull (read cloudy, rainy day) and I want a nice bright image. I use lighter color props, bright fabric. Light modifiers like a reflector helps. You can also play with the camera settings in order to overexpose your image. Lower the shutter – use a tripod. With modern cameras you can really pump up the ISO. To shoot a moody shot on a bright sunny day, you can use black cards to block light onto your subject. Again, play with your camera settings – for the appropriate exposure. If you have no access to natural light or need more predictability there is always artificial light.

Let’s talk a little about your photography for Monica bride’s book “A life of Spice”….did you read the stories to prepare for the shots or they were woven around the concepts shared ?

Monica gave me a lot of creative freedom and a great brief. She is a woman of words and was very explicit in explaining what mood she wanted. I translated that visually, used my creative judgement.

Your mother has the gift of art and does her work influence your photography ? Is she critique of your work ?

Yes, I owe a lot to my mother & my dad. I grew up in an artistic home. I have lived all my childhood looking at mom working on her art. She would spend five to six hours at a stretch and I would watch her hands on her sewing machine creating magic. She loves color and her brain has a built-in color wheel. My dad was her best and worst critic. I learnt to critique my own work from him.

I have a funny story to share, a few years ago (don’t remember which image it was) she (mom) told me that one of my images was not appropriate as I had used a spoon that was tarnished ( not rusted) and had bits of food around the plate. I told her my visual story…of a homely set up, probably my grandma’s house…, a relaxed afternoon and I want the viewer to be comfortable and feel at home.

Her response – firstly, your grandmother from both sides were very particular about their silverware and secondly who is so clumsy to have bits of food around the plate.

If you want homely set up show a hand serving food, show a cooking range ….She does have a point smile emoticon I still love my tarnished spoons and we agree to disagree on that one.

We talk a lot about art, photography and colors in nature.

We discussed few days back about studying artists work, is there a specific photographer,painter,musician work do you visit to derive inspiration.

I derive inspiration from all the artist who create magic, why limit myself to a few…

I can hardly say I drive inspiration…I strive too, I try hard. I have always been deeply influenced by chiaroscuro, sfumato and cangiante and particularly during the high Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Henry Fuseli, Raphael, Joseph Wright, Michelangelo, to name a few.

I love it for the colors, color mixing techniques, blending of light and colors, vibrancy, light, drama…

Ansel Adams, Annie Leibovitz, Art Wolfe, Steve McCurry, Nadine Greeff, Mowie Kay…few that I can remember. So many great artists.

Some of my friends do amazing work and are a constant source of inspiration. It will be very hard for me to pick a few.

Appreciation or self-satisfaction ?
Vintage or contemporary ?
Book or magazine ?

All of the above…you need a bit of everything to experience art. Self-satisfaction maybe not so much, not yet …

There are so many people inspiring to be photographers, what kind of photos do you want to see in their profile which would catch your attention. A parting message to them will be very nice!

Nothing connects art better than emotion. Creating images that narrates stories is a penchant for all of us. Creating images that captivate emotion and not technical perfection is the path for all of us.

Thanks for having me !

If you like her work you can follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.