The Set Table

 Throughout 2012 I worked on a project that I loved. It barely felt like work as I was shooting one of my favourite subjects - the set table. The fact that I was shooting this subject for a book called The Set Table felt like fate. My friend, the hugely talented photographer Brian Ferry, introduced me to the author Hannah Shuckburgh who was looking for a photographer to work with on a book. He knew that Hannah and I would get on and he was right - we met, became firm friends and had such a great time working together - big thanks to Brian for this!

Hannah is an incredibly good writer and the book is a fascinating read about using what you've got to create somewhere people will want to sit and linger. It's about food, friends and flowers, linen, crockery and glassware and how our use of these things has evolved. 

We shot the photographs using real tables and real people eating and drinking the things that you can see in the book, and I think that shows. Friends and family were so generous, giving us their time and their tables whilst I loaded roll after roll of film. Another thing that's so special is that the whole book was shot on film. Our lovely publisher, Ziggy, of Cicada Books took a punt on that one and I really think it paid off. Ziggy also commissioned Lydia Starkey to draw the excellent illustrations, another smart move I reckon. 

The launch was hosted in London by Anthropologie and was such a nice way to mark the work we did. My friend Claire wrote something very nice about that night and she also told me I should shout a bit louder about my work, so, here goes… 

I'm really, really proud of what Hannah and I created and each time I see the book in a shop - I spotted it recently in Selfridges, in the 'Food & Drink' chart at number 26, in between Rose Bakery's new book and The Hairy Bikers! - I have to stifle the urge to grab complete strangers and tell them all about it. I will stop short of that and instead point out some of the other nice things people have written about it recently. 

The Set Table is available now from all good book shops and of course online from Amazon. I have a published book! I can hardly believe it.