From the spare bedroom of her home in Devon Aimee Twigger has built a successful food blog and photography business.
Her images evoke the crunch of freshly baked bread and the smell of sun-warmed spring flowers.
We talk to her about combining her joint passions, inspiration and finding solace in nature during lockdown.
Turning a hobby into a career
Aimee started baking and cooking as a hobby and began photographing her food in 2014.
Her creations, shot with a Samsung compact SLR, initially gained interest on Pinterest.
From there she grew a following for both her recipes and unique food images.
Explaining her process, Aimee says: “I usually will have an idea in my head of how I want it beforehand and I will draw little mood boards in my notebook.
“I do take a lot of pictures. I try to get it perfect in camera so I don’t have to do a lot of post production.”
Following her success online, Aimee was approached by a publisher to create two cookbooks.
She shot the images for both with her original Samsung compact, though she has now upgraded to a Canon with a full frame.
“It is a lot easier because I don’t have a huge house so having a crop sensor meant I had to have the camera quite far away,” says Aimee.
Inviting the viewer into the kitchen
One of the striking things about Aimee’s images is how often they include people rather than just being photographs of completed dishes.
“I love to have a human element to my pictures, I always find it tells the story better,” says Aimee.
“When I look at images with people in, I just find I connect with it a lot more, I can imagine myself being the one tearing the bread open.”
When Aimee is photographing her own food this also gives an insight into her process.
“Because I do take so many pictures, if I was just to take pictures of the finished product all the time it would get quite boring,” she says.
“I love the process of cooking and baking so I like to document that part of the recipe.”
Art inspired by nature
Like so many artists, Aimee saw much of her work stop during lockdown.
She was unable to travel to her cooking workshops which had previously taken her all over the world.
Before the pandemic, she had workshops booked in Australia, Spain and France.
She is unsure when these opportunities will start up again.
“I wonder if we will see a fundamental change in the whole workshop, retreat space after this.”
However, Aimee’s artistic nature also helped her during lockdown.
“I leaned heavily on art during lockdown,” she says.
“The things that I actually baked were more like art projects, creating sculptures out of pastry and very elaborate cakes.”
Lockdown also allowed Aimee to draw on her natural surroundings for inspiration.
“Because we were trapped inside, the daily walk that I took was the only way to get inspiration so I did a lot more foraged food pictures and recipes.
“I have always been into that but I definitely did a lot more edible flowers and foraged inspirations.
“Living in Devon we are surrounded by so many different elements of nature, the woods, farmland and the sea.”
Inspired by the food and art of Italy
Alongside creating recipes, running workshops and commercial shoots, Aimee also does travel photography.
“I find I get bored quite a lot so taking other pictures is a different outlet for me when I don’t have any ideas of what to cook,” she says.
“I like to try a different style of photography. “
Aimee’s love for travel also inspires her recipes and food photography, in particular her favourite destination – Italy.
“I don’t know if that is because some of the artists I am into are Italian.
“Whenever I have been to Italy it feels like home. Maybe I was Italian in a previous life.”
Aimee Twigger
To find out more about Aimee Twigger visit twiggstudios.com.
You can also follow Twigg Studios on Pinterest or twiggstudios on Instagram.
