Do you have a favourite creative you follow? A person or company where everything they share is simply breathtaking? Culinary-wise, mine is
Our Food Stories. And judging by their almost 1 million followers on
instagram, I'm not alone! I was crazily excited to catch up with Nora and Laura, the creative duo behind the brand to find out more about their recipes and work, how to achieve
that 'moody' visual aesthetic,
Design Tales and their beautiful abodes.
What a pleasure to feature you on MSH. We'd love to hear a little more about who you are and what you do? We work as a photographer and food stylist. Laura studied photography and Nora actually fashion design. We have work together on our brand '
Our Food Stories' for almost 5 years and love it! Since we have a huge passion for design we decided to start an
interior-Instagram Account as well. When we are not in our studio in Berlin, we love to photograph productions in our second home in the countryside, close to Berlin.
I love what you guys are doing creatively with Our Food Stories. Where did your passion for food / cooking come from?We have both always loved good food! But when we met, it was really difficult to go out for dinner together, as Laura has so many food intolerances. So we started cooking together instead and had so much fun developing new recipes. Just before Laura finished her studies, we decided to share our recipes and pictures on a blog and we've never looked back.
What inspires your recipes / shoots? Ingredients-wise we often get inspired by the changing seasons. And from the photographic point of view we love to roam in the countryside to find hidden corners at a lake or in the woods and these spots and memories always inspire us for dreamy photo shootings.
You have a very distinct photographic style when it comes to food photography - how did this develop? Thank you!! It just came naturally. When we started photographing food, our style was actually quite bright and clean, as we photographed only in our kitchen at home in Berlin. Quite soon we needed more space though and had the possibility to use Laura's fathers house in the countryside for a while as a studio, as he didn't used it during that time that much. There the light was more moody, we had plenty of old rustic tables and always found some interesting wooden boards in the garden. So our style changed of course!
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| This yummy looking gluten-free pumpkin seed berry cake features in their book Dialogues. |
Do you have any advice to anyone looking to recreate the same dark, atmospheric look in their own photography? We are huge fans of natural light photography. So if you want to create this moody look, we would suggest shooting in a room with a small window and without direct sunlight. You can also use a black background, but you don't even need that, if you just watch the light and get a feeling for it, when it's best and at which time it helps you to create the effect that you want.
Do you each have your own skill set, if so how do you tend to divide tasks?We always develop the recipes together. But Nora always cooks, I'm cleaning in between :) and then we do the styling together and I shoot the pictures. But the photo shooting process is always a moment where we work together.
You divide your time between two (beautiful!) homes, can you tell us more about them?Thanks a lot! We have a flat in Berlin which is close to our studio. Our countryside space, is a little flat in the house of friends, which we completely renovated. It's so wonderful to live in a house with them, we're very grateful for this! Together we share a wonderful garden, which is our all time favorite photo shooting spot during summer.
Laura & Nora's Berlin apartment is near to their fabulous studio where a lot of the the culinary /photographic magic happens. Because of the creative chaos that often comes with photo shoots (although looking at the pictures, that's hard to imagine!) the pair like to keep their home pared-back and calm. Enjoy the tour!
"We love the mix between old and new things! Our home in Berlin is more modern, with new danish design interiors."
GET THE LOOK
Laura & Nora completely renovated their two room flat in the countryside just outside Berlin from scratch. It's part of a larger house owned by friends and offers a completely different creative setting for their work. Let's take a peek inside...
1. FRAMA
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/ 4. By Mölle
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/11. Silke Bonde
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- they're a must!! Who knows, you might even feel inspired to whip up a plum pie this evening (although I can't imagine mine looking quite like theirs!). You might also be excited to hear they have a book out too:
PS I can't wait to get out in the knee-deep snow (such a kid!).
