Campaign: Esmorzar de Forquilla al Bages
A Regional Campaign, 12 Restaurants, One Page in La Vanguardia
The brief went to three photographers. The other two specialised in food and restaurants. Bages Turisme chose me.
The Context
This project was part of something larger than a tourism campaign. The Guia dels Esmorzars de Forquilla al Bages was produced under the Catalunya Regió Mundial de la Gastronomia 2025 designation — a nationally recognised initiative backed by the Generalitat de Catalunya, UNESCO GeoParc Mundial, Diputació de Barcelona, and Som Gastronomia. The guide needed to represent the region's gastronomic heritage at that level, across every channel it would appear in.
I was the sole photographer commissioned for the project. A small number of images from Bages Turisme's existing archive supplemented coverage for restaurants that had opted out of a new session. Nine of the twelve restaurants in the final guide feature photography from my shoots.
The campaign was led by Montserrat Selga, responsable de Bages Turisme, Consell Comarcal del Bages.
The Brief
Twelve restaurants. Spread across the comarca — from Rajadell and Mura to Sallent and Navarcles. Each needed full photographic coverage: exterior, village setting, dining room, kitchen in action, and signature dishes. The images had to work across Instagram carousels, reels, a newsletter, and a downloadable guide with a map — all in high resolution and web-optimised formats. Consistency of colour, tone, and quality across all twelve locations was a requirement, not a preference.
Alongside the photography, I produced B-roll video footage at each location for use in social media reels.
The Logistics
Twelve restaurants means twelve separate scheduling conversations. The brief required shooting when the kitchen was active — to capture the real atmosphere — but before service made working impossible. That window is different at every place.
Not all of them were straightforward. Some were well-established and familiar with press attention. Others were smaller, family-run, and skeptical about a photographer coming in on a Tuesday morning. The answer was showing up professionally and showing them the results on the camera screen before leaving.
Four of them invited me to stay for breakfast. Most asked if they could keep the photos for themselves.
Every location also required signed documentation before departure, as part of the formal project protocol with the Consell Comarcal.
The Work
A minimum of 30 photographs per restaurant, delivered in both high resolution and web-optimised formats within four weeks of the first shoot. Maintaining consistent colour grading and editing tone across twelve different spaces, lighting conditions, and kitchens — while keeping each location feeling like itself — was the central technical challenge of the project. It's also the part of this kind of brief that separates a cohesive campaign from a collection of individual shoots.
The Result
Bages Turisme deployed the work across every channel in the campaign: Instagram carousels and reels, a newsletter feature, and a downloadable guide — print-compatible, with a map of all twelve restaurants — with my name credited on Instagram and in the guide itself.
The campaign also appeared in the Quèfem supplement of La Vanguardia — the paper's Catalan-language culture and lifestyle pullout, with one of the highest-engaged readerships in Catalonia — as a dedicated full-page feature, with my photography covering the majority of the page. It was published as part of the Mes dels Esmorzars de Forquilla, one of the flagship cultural moments of Catalunya's gastronomy designation year.
The project was formally signed off as completed to satisfaction by the Consell Comarcal del Bages.
On working with family businesses
The most memorable part of this project was the restaurant owners who were skeptical when I arrived and warm by the time I left. The ones who asked if they could keep the photos. The ones who pulled out a chair.
That dynamic doesn't happen by accident. It comes from treating every location — whether a well-known restaurant or a small family place that had never had a professional photographer come through the door — with the same attention and the same respect.
It's also what makes the images look the way they do.
"Has has proven himself to be the perfect choice for trade show and event photography. The fast pace of the internet demands photographers who keep up with the times and understand the new requirements of global brands.
Has does this with impressive calm, empathy and eye for detail. This was certainly not the last time we worked with him."
Get in Touch
If you're planning an institutional campaign, a regional initiative, or a multichannel project that needs to hold together across multiple locations and reach a press-level audience, let’s talk.