Food & Wine Photography — Basque Country, Spain & France
A selection of gastronomic and wine photography for editorial and commercial clients, built over 15 years of working across some of the world’s most celebrated culinary regions.
A Region Built on Food
The Basque Country is one of the great culinary cultures of the world. More Michelin stars per capita than anywhere else on earth. A tradition of txokos — private gastronomic societies where cooking is ritual and gathering is sacred. A coastline that dictates the menu. A wine culture rooted in the steep hillsides of Rioja Alavesa and the Atlantic-facing slopes of Irouléguy, just across the French border.
To photograph cuisine here is to photograph identity. Every dish carries history. Every producer carries generations. Every market stall tells you something about the season and the land. This is not still-life styling — it is gastronomy as culture, as landscape, as people. The best photography in this region doesn’t happen in a studio. It happens in the dining room, in the kitchen, in the vineyard, in the cellar, in the early morning light of a fish market where the day’s menu is still being decided.
From Kitchen to Vineyard
This gallery spans the full gastronomic world — from the precision of a Michelin-starred kitchen to the rough hands of a wine producer pulling bottles from a cellar that smells of oak and time. From the controlled drama of a chef’s tasting menu to the democratic pleasure of a plate of chipirones at a zinc bar counter.
The work includes portraits of chefs and producers, detail shots of ingredients and dishes, ambient photography of restaurant spaces, and documentary coverage of the rituals and culture that surround eating and drinking in this part of the world. A grilled lobster over open flames at Elkano. The quiet concentration of a chef composing a plate at Arzak. A winemaker tasting from a barrel at dusk. A bar counter in San Sebastián at noon, full of pintxos nobody has touched yet.
These are the moments that make this region extraordinary — and the moments this work tries to capture.
Editorial & Commercial Clients
Over 15 years, this work has been commissioned by and published in some of the most respected culinary, travel and lifestyle publications internationally — including Wine Spectator, Monocle, National Geographic Traveler, El País Semanal, Le Monde and the Financial Times Magazine, among others.
Commercial clients have included restaurants, hotels, producers, wine estates and hospitality brands across the Basque Country, Navarra, La Rioja, and the French Basque Country — from Bilbao and San Sebastián to Biarritz, Bayonne and Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Each commission is approached with the same editorial sensibility — images that work as hard in a printed magazine as they do on a restaurant website.
Working Across Spain & France
Based between Bilbao and Biarritz, Markel Redondo works fluidly across the Spanish-French border — a region that shares a language, a culture and a deep obsession with eating well. This dual base gives unique access to both sides of a story that has never respected national boundaries.
The French Basque Country — Iparralde — is a culinary world unto itself. The markets of Bayonne. The fishing port of Saint-Jean-de-Luz. The wine estates of Irouléguy tucked into mountain valleys that feel far from everything. On the Spanish side, San Sebastián continues to define what a great dining city can be, while Bilbao has grown into one of Spain’s most exciting gastronomic destinations.
Whether it is a new restaurant opening in San Sebastián, a harvest at a small Irouléguy domaine, a chef residency in Bordeaux, or a product campaign for a culinary brand — the approach is always the same. Patient, editorial, and rooted in a genuine love for this culture and everything it produces.
Commissions
Available for restaurant, chef, product, wine and gastronomic photography commissions across Spain, France and internationally. Fluent in English, French, Spanish and Basque — no translator needed on either side of the border. For rates and availability, please get in touch via the contact page.
