Once upon a time, I thought I was going to be a chef forever. I qualified as a chef back in 2012 with a head full of ambition, an unhealthy knowledge of the world’s best restaurants, and a slight obsession with the way Anthony Bourdain made food, restaurants and chef life feel like one big adventure. Then photography got involved. In this episode, I’m taking a step back toward the kind of work I actually do for a living: commercial photography. I’m photographing Market Bistro, part of the Tony Kelly Restaurant Group, using a clunky old TLR film camera and Cinestill 800T to document the restaurant as the daylight disappears and the warm evening light starts taking over. And Cinestill 800T inside a restaurant at night? Yeah… it gets pretty bloody good. Along the way, I tell the slightly condensed story of how I went from being a chef, to moving to London, to photographing bartenders, builders, wood carvers and World War II veterans — and somehow even meeting Sir Ian McKellen — while trying to build the portfolio that would eventually help me become a professional photographer. There are missed frames. There are blurry frames. There are inexplicably short rolls of film. There are plenty of reminders that I desperately need to slow down. But there are also a handful of photographs that remind me exactly why I love doing this. For me, photography has always been less about the camera and more about where it takes you. Restaurants, kitchens, strange jobs, interesting people and places I probably never would have experienced otherwise. At the heart of it, I’m still chasing the same thing I was when I was a chef: a little bit of adventure and mystery in life. This is commercial restaurant photography on film, shooting Cinestill 800T at night, behind the scenes with a working photographer and a little bit of my photography origin story thrown in for good measure. If you’re into film photography, commercial photography, restaurant photography, food photography, Cinestill 800T, medium format photography, behind-the-scenes photography, photography careers, professional photography or documentary-style photography**, you’re in the right place. Thanks for watching. — Corey
