Martin Wonnacott

When Martin was young he started photographing and experimenting with bottles and liquids, trying to capture splashes of liquids on film.

Martin got his first job as an assistant working in a studio when he was 17.  Whilst working in the studio Martin watched how drinks were photographed, and became intrigued how technical everything was.

Martin’s speciality is liquids, alcoholic beverages to be precise with bottles, glasses pouring and splashing for some of the most prolific advertisers in the world.  They call on Martin to create striking and colourful compositions that the views can almost taste.

In an interview for Digital Photo Pro magazine (an American photographic magazine) Martin’s advice to other photographers who are striving to create striking images like his own Martin’s advice was simply “Keep it simple. Over lighting is the biggest problem, I think people throw too much light at a subject.  Less is more, but many people are afraid of that”

Coming from an Englishman who divides his time between his two New York and London studios, this advice comes from somebody who has proven that he knows what he is taking about.  In fact, when I was shooting products in the college photographic studio, Steve Davies was always advising the use of subtle lighting of the products and not to over light them.

With one of Martin’s projects, for the Baileys drink, Martin explained, in the Digital Photo Pro interview, “the Baileys shoot was very complex, it had to look like Baileys; there couldn’t be any question.  The texture had to be right.  There were suggestions of using all sorts of other liquids, and there were a few other photographers in the pitch who were testing other ways you could get other liquids to look similar to Baileys.  But it worked out that we just used Baileys at room temperature.  There you go.  Stop messing around and let’s just use the real thing”. 

And looking at the picture below, as someone who occasionally has a glass of Baileys, I can say that it does look the part;

   Baileys: The perfect pour

Although Martin’s speciality is alcoholic beverages, his portfolio contains a wide range of other products.

Martin’s gear includes:

• Sinar P3 and Sinar eVolution 75H digital back

• Sinaron Digital 55mm and 90mm lenses (although Martin does carry his 28mm, 45mm, 120mm and 150mm lenses at all times).

• Profoto Pro-8a Air pack and Pro heads with reflectors and grids.

• Roll of Rosco Heavy Frost

Below is some more of Martin’s work:

 

Evaluation if Images

Martin has used strong colours in his work, in some cases against a white background.  In some of his work Martin has also used texture in varying forms from condensation on glasses to the effects on the yogurt adverts.

For me it is Martin's use of the splashing liquids that has caught my eye, in particular the classic Baileys pour (above the selection of images) and the Dove splash (column 2 row 1 of the images above) and in today's world something like that can make the difference over how long a viewer might look at an image before looking to the next.

Martin has varied his photographic angle, if you compare the image of the bottle and glass (column1 row 2), you will see he has used a high angle, looking down on the items from about 75 degrees, whereas on the Jamesons photograph, again with a bottle and glass (column 1 row 3) the camera looks from a lower angle, until we reach the classic Guinness shot (column 2 row 8) where the camera is looking up towards the top of the glass.

It is interesting on the play on the please drink responsibly theme adopted by alcohol drink manufacturers, possible to avoid a ban on advertising their goods, with the Herradura Tequila advert where the please drink responsibly, has been changed in line with the theme of the advert to read 'Fortune favours the responsible drinker'.

Martin's images are generally evenly lit.