While the James Beard Foundation Awards were announced yesterday in New York, in London, the focus was on food photography, where the winning images from this year’s Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year were announced. The grand prize went to Mark Benham for his image of a cloud of flour enveloping a bearded, smiling man in chef’s whites, an artisan baker at The Thoughtful Bread Company in Bath, England, who tosses a chunk of dough on a floury table. The contest, launched in 2011, is based in the UK, the U.S. and Australia, and attracts amateur and professional food photographers from around the world. They compete in categories that include food portraiture (Jean Cazals’s “Chicken Cheese Toasty” stabs a knife through a gooey sandwich), food in the field (Robin Goodlad’s sylvan “The Carpet of Wild Garlic” catches low sun through trees), food in action (for which Benham also won), the politics of food (Marcin Jucha pictured Cubans butchering meat), and categories for young photographers, including an under 10 division (Isaac Callis won for a study of an artfully cut cabbage and strawberry). Among 7000 entries from 60 countries, the scenes range from exotic to familiar, and the food from delicious to icky, all depending on your point of view. A show of images from the contest is on view at The Mall Galleries in London until May 1.

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