Sally Parker's inspired work for Selector magazine

I asked stylist Sally Parker to give us an insight into this beautiful shoot she did for Selector magazine recently. Here's what she said:

"This was a lovely shoot to work on. Selector Magazine is such stunning mag with high production values. For this job we were shooting unusual but delicious Korean food, and the team was relaxed and fun.

My brief was very open. Christian Lawler, the art director from Selector Magazine gave me the colour palate he wanted and asked for delicate flowers to be incorporated, but the rest was up to me. I went to a number of florists to source the flowers and finally found the beautiful ‘dancing lady’ orchids which seemed perfect even though they aren’t Korean. I had the background made to match the colour palate. Luckily I had a week up my sleeve for that. I had so many wonderful props but many we didn’t use as we found that, as is so often the case, ‘less is more’. I would like to have done more shots to use them!

When styling for this job I did a fair amount of research into authentic Korean food presentation. I looked at cookbooks, travel and art books and websites. I also went to Korean and Japanese food stores. Northbridge is wonderful for Japanese food and cooking gear, and I discovered a great Korean store in Fairfield with so many varieties of kimchi (pickled cabbage or radish). Research is a favourite part of my job and so interesting. However regarding the styling, I generally aim for overall effect and beauty, rather than trying exactly recreate the authentic style. Korean food is quite rustic and can be heavy, so it was a bit of a challenge to make it appear lighter and more ‘Spring’ like.

Our lunch was amazing but we did have lots of kimchi left over as the recipe used 4kg of cabbage. Enough to feed a small army of photographers, art directors and stylists!"