If you’ve ever looked at a photographer whose work stops you mid-scroll – where every image feels like it’s saying something, where there’s a world behind the food rather than just a dish in front of a lens – and wondered how someone actually builds a career like that, this episode is for you.
We sat down with Costas Millas, a food photographer, stylist, and art director based in the UK, whose food art stories and work with brands like Fortnum & Mason and Waitrose have made him one of the most distinctive voices in our industry. Costas talks honestly about making the leap to full-time creative work, how he built a broader offering without losing focus, what it really took to land clients at the highest level, and the self-published book that brought his personal work into the world. This is a conversation about creative identity, intentional business building, and what it looks like to let your personal work become your most powerful professional asset.
WHAT YOU’LL TAKE AWAY FROM THIS EPISODE:
If you’ve ever wondered what it actually takes to go full-time as a creative – not the highlight reel version, but the real one – this conversation is an honest, grounding look at what that transition involves. For so many food photographers, the leap feels like the destination. But what happens after you land is a whole other story.
Costas Millas made the move to full-time photography and food styling in 2025, and in this episode he shares what those first months actually looked like – the excitement, the uncertainty, and the slower-than-expected path to feeling genuinely stable rather than just surviving. His experience is a reminder that building a sustainable creative business is a process, not a moment, and that the early days rarely look the way you imagined they would.
But the heart of this conversation is creative identity. Costas’s food art stories – deeply conceptual, visually rich, unmistakably his – are what set him apart in an industry where a lot of work can start to look the same. He walks us through how those stories come to life, from the first flicker of an idea through to a fully realised set of images, and how he actively protects and feeds his creative inspiration by looking well beyond the food photography world. It’s a practical and philosophical conversation about what it means to develop a visual voice that’s genuinely yours.
We also talk about Costas’ new book ‘No Colour’. Self-publishing is a significant creative, logistical, and financial undertaking – and Costas shares what led him to that decision, what the process taught him, and whether it has opened the doors he hoped it would.
Topics covered on food photography business and creative identity:
– Making the leap to full-time food photography and styling – what the reality looks like
– Building a business that spans photography, styling, and art direction without losing focus
– How Costas developed his food art stories and what the creative process looks like
– Protecting and feeding creative inspiration as a working photographer
– Self-publishing a book – the creative, logistical, and business side
– Landing iconic British clients and what actually made the difference
– Navigating the tension between personal creative work and commercial commissions
– Practical advice for photographers building a more distinctive, story-driven body of work
