After an intense fashion photo shoot in New York came to a crashing end, leaving Parker in a wheelchair and off work for 11 months, he had to come home and re-think about the direction his photography career was heading. He knew the fashion industry in Australia isn't at the same scale as the U.S. so food was his next best bet.

He came back to Australia where he began shooting for Broadsheet and Concrete Playground and for restaurants like Hartsyard, the Vue De Monde group and Stokehouse.

Currently stuck in Melbourne during the intense lockdown, Parker and I chat over the phone about the changing culture of food photography between the 'old school' and 'new school' photographers, with the recent boom in food bloggers who are creating a divide in what some restaurants really expect from professional food photographers.
We chat about the pressures of maintaining a food and lifestyle photography business during COVID19 and how restaurants are having to work around the issue of putting out recent content while adherring to the stage 4 lockdown currently in Melbourne.

His latest project (as of September 2020), which was funded by the City of Melbourne, explores the daily lives of people already suffering from compromised immune systems, in a time where social distancing and personal health is at the utmost of importance.

http://www.sissyscreens.com/photography/photography-series-invisible-project/

Be sure to tune in, it's a great reflective chat about the early ambitions and passions of a photographer having grown up in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

The Roots Podcast is proudly supported by the Australian Good Food Guide. A hospitality guide that started in 1977 and still continues to support and rate restaurants ever since.

Music by Charlie Fester.

Ep. 11 Parker Blain (Food & Lifestyle Photographer)

Roots Hospitality

Ep. 11 Parker Blain (Food & Lifestyle Photographer)