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caitlin isola

@scaitboard

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food photographer
🔴🔶🟡🔷🟢✨
➥ bright colours + unruly compositions
⚲ London based / available worldwide
☻ 3rd culture kid raised in restaurants

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It’s been a while since I showed my face, so here it is, with a bit of background about me 😊

Previously a graphic designer, I’m now a full time freelance food and drink photographer. In the last three years, I’ve worked with @Ogilvy, @Heinz, @Bacardi, @DKBooks, @MrLyan, @AmericanExpress, @Dishoom, @TheStandard & @QuoVadis as well as many others. I’ve shot cookbooks with brilliant chef authors @RiazPhillips, @SophOnAPlate, @MysticBurek & been published in @PitMagazineUK, @Eater (RIP), @Esquire, @SundayTimes, @EveningStandard, and more.

I’d wanted to be a photographer in high school, but instead studied art direction, which folded quite neatly into developing my eye over the years. Back then, it had never crossed my mind to photograph food, despite growing up in a family of restaurateurs.

Many of my school nights in Cape Town were spent sneaking into the cold kitchen of the trattoria for a slice of Parma ham and a glimpse of mum & granny sweating over colanders of fresh pasta, huge carpaccios on hand-painted platters, racks of lamb, & trays of cocoa-dusted tiramisu. Grandad’s restaurant was on a wine estate, reserved for family occasions. When my mum eventually opened her own place, you couldn’t pay me to leave; I was there every evening for staff meal.

After a move to London and several years working in—& graphic designing for—restaurants, I freelanced as a restaurant concept designer for a consultancy. I’d spent far more time at a desk than was usual to me, when a wild opportunity arose & I escaped to Jamaica with a second hand camera I’d bought.

Fast forward 6 glorious months of island life, I returned to London with just enough time to start enjoying food photography when lockdown hit; once the initial shock passed, i used the time it gave me to practice, make mistakes, teach myself & learn from others.

I’m proud of what i’ve achieved since 😊

Food has always been at the center of my family; the gravitational pull that still keeps us in each other’s orbit, so it’s no surprise really that I insist on coming back to the table—whether hovering over it to photograph the food or sitting at it to eat the food 🍝♥️ by @scaitboard

gravity defying stunts, still life and lifestyle for daily dose juice earlier this year! such a fun shoot! i love my job!! 📸🧑‍🩰✨

photographed + art directed by Caitlin Isola / assisted by Jason Colledge / styled by Liam baker

#fruitjuice #juicyfruit #foodphotography by @scaitboard

updating the website and in the process dug out a couple of my fav kitchen snaps, so here’s lil behind the plate action :) by @scaitboard

sssssseptember! always a banger, never ceases to be the 9th month of the year! ft jacks gorgey smile, tara garnell the GOAT, standing on a large pot, soup (big up soup), sky (big up sky), termaters, ham, primeur with kai, blowing bubbles with ugo and SRP, b in b in manchester, winsome, fish wings n tings after a sunday at club cheek, the maddest and mostest house party i ever did host, a mini story from a mini human, camping with the math gang, loki, duendita, a noticeably delicious flat white, a most excellent wedding and the gorgeous dancing fountain… lucky lucky magic stuff ✨ by @scaitboard

shot some new commercial work for @spraga.uk this summer, excellent colour palette on this one!

photographer: Caitlin Isola @scaitboard
lighting + digi: Jason Colledge @j.colledgephoto
model: Mandy Wong @wongman_x
wardrobe + styling: Lexie Forrester / Hannah Norris

#vibes by @scaitboard

HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY SAM!
‼️🪩‼️ this one’s a banger

was an absolutely epic adventure creating all these scenes with @nomeatdisco and the crew, constant vibes on set, good tunes always and it came together so beautifully in print. thrilled with how loud and wacky some of the shots are, it’s always fun when the brief leaves heaps of room for creativity, and i even managed to dig out some of my grandma’s vintage lace for it. also really enjoyed syncing sam’s wardrobe with the scene.. so much colour, love it ❤️‍🔥

would not have been possible without the most brilliant crew of humans who came together to make this happen!

photographs by @scaitboard
assisted by @dannymillar @j.colledgephoto @binbimchen @rosie_feather_
food by @kittycardoso @jess_e_mcintosh @lucindakathryn
styling by @scaitboard @nomeatdisco
published by @littlebrown
shot at @sachet.studio

#cookbook #pbfood #nomeatdisco #fyp by @scaitboard

La Trattoria, @dara.klein’s gorgeous debut cookbook, is finally out on shelves and she is such a beauty (both Dara and the book!! she’s radiant!)

I wanted to work on this project from the moment I heard about it, anxiously submitting my pitch for the job with photographs that shared my own intimate history with restaurants and hospitality. The chance to collaborate with someone whose history so closely related to my own—born in italy, grown in the southern hemisphere and raised by the trattoria—was truly unique. When I found out they’d chosen me from a list of heavy hitting and extremely talented photographers, I was absolutely over the moon.

Dara is such a talented chef. She cooks from the heart and it was a joy to bring her food to life on camera. Retracing her history through the various bars and trattorie in and around Bologna was like being on some sort of gastronomic scavenger hunt each day, and those days ended with us taking turns to put our feet up on the bear chair (last pic hehe)

Dara, thank you for the trust with such an intimate story 🤍 and well done to our wonderful London shoot team @rosiemackeanpastaqueen on food styling, assisted by @brilliantbake / @rachelvere on props / @dannymillar + @rachelebillings on lights + digi

commissioned by @stephaniejoandrake

#cookerybooks #cookbooks #latrattoria #daraklein #caitlinisola by @scaitboard

a jumble of scenes lately including, but not limited to; some fun bts, a good carbonara in the garden, fox in the big city, coffee on sundays (join us!), soft light on the surplus station, @dara.klein’s beautiful book full of my beautiful photographs in her beautiful restaurant (the beef tartar ❤️‍🔥), classic seasonal stuff, mum at papi for the last time, @sophonaplate’s gorgeous new book also shot by yours truly, kids cooking 🥹🥹🥹, bread soup 💘💘💘, cheese ice cream, cats, dog, bird… and, well, a lil surprise for the adventurous at the end 🌚 by @scaitboard

I’LL COOK! the second book i shot with the most excellent hostess Sophie Godwin and all her fabulous ideas on how best to cook for friends. We had the most fun shooting this together last year with a tight little team, orienting each shoot day around which spread we’d have for lunch, because priorities!

Photography by Caitlin Isola assisted by Rachel Billings
Food styling by Adam Bush + Sophie Godwin assisted by Romilly Dent
Props by Charlie Phillips
Commissioned by Celine Hughes

more book projects! i love seeing them out in the world and in peoples homes, it’s so special. by @scaitboard

obligatory change of the seasons post! ft the best raspberry I ever tasted (from a local front yard), shades of autumn against a blue sky, quality time with both parents, fun times with a number of excellent friends, new skills, new perspectives, some art, some music, some work, some play, and of course some really good food. by @scaitboard

a lil test shoot: wine + takeout, who’s in 😎

particular thanks to the little crew that worked with me on this one 😊
food styling @itslucyruth assisted by @dorabuongustaia
hand models @raisehellbill @itslucyruth + Jack

#kwvwines #sawines #winephotography #foodandrinkphotography by @scaitboard

a couple favourite wide crops from when @parisrosina did a fabulous spread for @rebecca.spaven’s wedding and commissioned me to capture the buffet table, which i did with glee.

love the anonymous frames of people serving up in their best wedding clothes.

won’t photograph weddings, but I do love to snap the snacks 👌🏼

#dontaskmetophotographyourwedding ;) by @scaitboard