Style Guide: Becky Charman on Creating a Feast for Your Eyes

Becky Charman joined CHS in 2005 and leads the styling team. As head of styling, Becky develops and trains new members of the team, nurtures new clients, and works from beginning to end on live briefs. This involves translating the brief, working with the production and props department to get the style perfect for the brand, plan the shoot itself, and then execute the styling on set. Becky works across product and food styling, working on location, with models and in the studio.

LBB> How would you describe the work that you do?

Becky> As head of styling at CHS, I lead the team to produce a high level of creative styling within the photographic department of the agency. As stylists, we work closely with photographers to build the image together, and create the best shot for the brand we are working with. From food styling, to set builds, location work, video and model shoots, we cover a diverse range of image execution, meeting the needs of our clients. Our strong team of eight stylists work directly with our clients on each project, developing the look and feel required for each shoot, and making sure that every shot produced is the right fit for the brand and end requirement.

LBB> And do you have a particular style (or styles) that you like to work in? If so, how would you describe that?

Becky> Food styling has always been my passion within the styling world as I love cooking, working with my hands, and how creative you can be with food and ingredients on set. Being able to entice the viewer, and make them hungry with one image is so exciting. I’ve learnt over my career so far, how subtle styling changes and creating the right set with a photographer can take an image to the next level. Bringing this knowledge and experience on set has allowed me to elevate the food images for some of our brands like Lakeland and Milk&More. 

Creatively guiding them, with future trends and shooting styles helps our clients stay at the forefront of food innovation.

LBB> How did you gravitate towards stylist?

Becky> I started my career in textiles, completing my degree at Winchester School of Art. Followed by three years working in the industry as a printed textile designer for fashion. 

However, before this I thought I wanted to be a photographer, but getting to experience a variety of art forms whilst on the Art Foundation course, I directed my attention to textiles where I could be more hands-on. 

I stayed in touch with the photography studio at CHS though, where I had completed work experience at 15, and went back regularly to assist, buy props and later help within the catalogue department. 

I enjoyed getting involved with any shoot that I could in that time, and that’s where my love of styling grew from. The use of colour and composition translates well from textiles, and when the opportunity arose to join CHS as stylist I made the move and never looked back.

LBB> And when you started developing your creative skills and styles, what were your inspirations and influences?

Becky> I have always gained so much inspiration from other stylists. The more senior members of the team at the time when I joined were so passionate about their work that it rubbed off on me. 

Often styling is about the detail, whether that’s on the planning side, or on set when for example, making the drip on a cake look just right and as natural as possible. 

Once I became more confident in my style and skill, I really wanted to focus on all those things I could do to elevate my shots to the next level. I would scour food magazines and recipe books to see what was the most inspirational image, and analyse what styling elements were there to make me want to take the food right off the page. 

I would use these shots as inspiration and started to bring these elements into my food styling. Now, we train the team in these elements and constantly challenge ourselves to push that shot to the next level.

I still want to keep evolving and pushing my style as much as I can. With new stylists joining the team, and long standing stylists honing their style along-side me, there is always a wealth of inspiration to share within the studio.

LBB> How has your style evolved over time - and can you talk to us about some of the stylistic experiments or avenues you’ve explored over the years?

Becky> Over the last 18 years of styling I have seen a lot change in the industry. Faking food shots with concrete or mashed potato for ice cream or covering an uncooked turkey with marmite to get that perfectly cooked look. 

To now, creating food from scratch to look as authentic and real as possible. That’s not to say that we don’t occasionally cheat, for example using a polystyrene cake when an iced creation doesn’t need cutting into! 

The trend now is for everything to look real, delicious and like you just want to take the food right off the page and eat it, so we need to make sure what we are creating is realistic for the viewer. Mess, drips and garnishes evoke the feeling of a dish that has just been created or is already being devoured.

LBB> And was there any one particular moment or project that really crystallised your understanding of what your style is or should be?If so, can you tell us about it?

Becky> For me it was being given free rein in the early days of my career at CHS, to develop some food shots for Lakeland. 

Working with their brand in mind and a very talented emerging photographer, we let go of any restrictions and created some images to showcase baking and roasting for the now iconic home shopper. 

The images were well received in the studio, and they’ve continued to be used by Lakeland to this day. That was the moment that crystallised my love of food styling and prompted me to want to pursue that avenue further.

LBB> What sort of ideas shape your style today?

Becky> Within food styling today it’s all about keeping it real. Creating an image that looks delicious in all its crumbly, gooey and drippy realness! 

Although we use a few trade secrets to enhance the food, the majority of the time we make food from scratch and present it as you would if you were eating it at home. 

Some tricks we do like are blanching green veg and plunging in iced water to keep it fresh and bright on set, and adding sugar to champagne to increase the bubbles, and these are used to enhance that image rather than fake it.

LBB> From NFTs to the metaverse, there are more spaces for your work to show up - what are your thoughts on the impact, challenges and opportunities brought up by these new spaces? And do they influence how you think about your style (ie. is there pressure to adapt or change your style to fit these new digital frontiers - or is it kind of exciting?)

Becky> Currently these new spaces don’t affect work that I am producing, but as an agency we are becoming more aware of their presence and the impact they may have in the future. I think it’s exciting to see where this will go in the future and see how over time, this gradually filters into our lives and work.

LBB> Working in the commercial sphere, is it more important for an artist to have a distinct brand or style? What’s the balance having a distinctive voice and being able to accommodate the visual language of the brand/campaign?

Becky> Commercially for the work that I do, it is best to accommodate the visual language of the brand/campaign that I'm working on. That’s not to say that I can’t inject my distinct style into those images, and often it’s what’s drawn a client to come and work with us, but only if it works for that brand. 

I constantly have to adapt my style to each project that I work on, but that’s what makes each day interesting and challenging.

LBB> Typically, on a commercial project, how do you like to tackle a brief?

Becky> Firstly I immerse myself in the brand, ask questions and look at how they have, and are currently using photography and styling to promote themselves. 

This will guide me on how to approach their imagery, and how I can adapt my style to suit them. Having a meeting with the client themselves also really aids me to get to know them, and the images they hope to create in collaboration with us. 

It’s always helpful to create moodboards to set a style that we can agree with the client, so we can then source props, find locations or models if required and build sets within the studio. 

Then it’s time to start shooting, where I’ll work closely with the photographer to build the images following the brief from the client and any moodboards we have created.

LBB> What projects have you worked on recently that you feel were a really satisfying marriage between a brand and your own style? What was it about these projects that made them really interesting to work on?

Becky> Working with Lakeland is always a strong collaboration, and allows me to express my personal style in a really creative way for them. 

After 17 years of personally working with them, it is a close relationship where we can develop ideas together and push creativity season on season with them. 

It is also my personal favourite because of the amount of cooking and baking products we get to shoot for them. They trust our styling and trend knowledge, so with each project we can creatively guide them and get really involved at the ideas stage before ever taking the product on set.