Cocktail Photographer: Benjamin Brette's Journey from Weddings

Shooting a wedding means capturing the unexpected in half a second. Shooting a cocktail means controlling everything, from the reflection on the glass to the last ice cube. Benjamin Brette does both: a well-known wedding photographer in Paris, he also creates images of drinks, bottles and bars for the trade press and for spirits brands.

Talking with Eloa Landais, photographer and head of training at Fotostudio, he looks back on his career change, on how he diversified without ever giving up weddings, and on the unexpected doors photography has opened for him, from Roland-Garros to the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.

Who is Benjamin Brette?

Benjamin Brette is a wedding photographer based in the Paris region who also follows his couples all over France and abroad. His approach is documentary: candid, modern and genuine images rather than posed photos.

• A career changer: he left a salaried job in 2010, through a voluntary redundancy plan, to become a photographer.
• A drinks photographer: cocktails, bottles, bars and spirits, for the bar industry trade press and for brands.
• A corporate photographer: event coverage, photo booth activations, and even photographing the center court at Roland-Garros under construction for a lighting manufacturer.

At the time of recording, in January 2021, his business was split almost equally between weddings and the world of drinks.

1. How do you become a wedding photographer after a career change?

Benjamin himself describes his path as "the awfully classic career change story." He had a well-paid job close to home, with comfortable hours, but it bored him deeply. When his company announced a redundancy plan with very generous severance terms, he took the leap: he gave himself two years to make it work, or to fall flat on his face.

Weddings were an almost natural choice. He was already an amateur photographer, and he had worked as a wedding DJ during his student years. Photography on one side, weddings on the other: why not?

Self-taught, the resourceful way

No mentor, no fashion magazines: Benjamin calls himself a "photo geek." His real school was the Hardware.fr forum, a French computer website that hosted a large community of photographers. He learned things there that he still uses today. He then met other photographers through word of mouth, discovered the GNPP (France's national association of professional photographers) and a generation that was shaking up wedding photography with a more documentary approach.

A first wedding found on a forum

To find his first couples, he used the same method: he joined the big women's forums of the time, spotted engaged couples talking about their wedding date and sent them a private message offering his services, being completely upfront about the fact that he was just starting out. His first wedding, a full day with an album and extra sessions, sold for 800 euros. He now considers that a fair price for a beginner, provided you know how to calculate your prices based on the time you actually spend. A dozen good images from that wedding were enough to launch his website.

"Technically, they're failures, but they're not failures in their intent."

Benjamin Brette, about his 2010 photos

2. How do you stay true to your couples when weddings pile up?

Benjamin admits he got lost for a while in "aesthetic trips," at the expense of what his clients expected. He drew a simple rule from it: the nice phrases every photographer writes on their website, like "telling your story," are a commitment.

"What we tell our clients, we're still bound to deliver."

Benjamin Brette

Holding on to that standard is easier in April, after the winter break, than in September with 20 or 25 weddings under your belt. But for the couple, it's the day of a lifetime.

100% of the photos for the clients

Many photographers allow themselves a few images "for themselves" at every wedding. Benjamin refuses to think in percentages: if he takes 20% of the photos for himself, his clients only get 80% of his work. His goal is for the images he likes best to also be the ones his couples love most. Even group photos, which require little creativity but mean a great deal to families, deserve to be perfectly exposed and framed.

Are you a wedding photographer yourself? That same care for the client is what brings in referrals, season after season.

3. Why add corporate events to wedding photography?

Early on, Benjamin met the head of an event photography agency that sent photographers to corporate parties. He discovered a different job:

• event coverage at corporate parties and events;
• photo booth activations, with green screens and instant prints for guests;
• personalized items: badges, Christmas baubles and stars featuring the guests' photos.

It wasn't a way of escaping weddings, but an opportunity to see something different. Above all, it was a compatible activity: these jobs take place in the evening and on weekdays, never on Saturdays. The agency has since closed, and the pandemic cut back the events industry, but Benjamin has kept a few regular corporate clients.

4. How does a wedding photographer become a cocktail photographer?

By chance, as is often the case. An event organizer came across his website (a wedding website) and hired him to run a photo booth at a tasting evening for the gin brand Gordon's, on a barge in Paris. A memorable night: a gust of wind blew a flash umbrella and its stand into the Seine.

The organizer called him back for another spirits brand, then revealed that he ran a trade magazine distributed in bars, which was in the middle of a redesign. He asked Benjamin to take one or two photos. Benjamin had never done any food photography and said so openly. The publisher gave him a chance anyway. Years later, Benjamin still shoots the magazine's covers.

"It's his magazine, it's his baby. He really trusted me with the cover photos."

Benjamin Brette

A mobile studio, set up in bars

For his first shoots, Benjamin put together a small portable studio, which he set up right in the bar while a bartender made the cocktail. He enjoyed it so much that he made it his second niche: the world of drinks in the broadest sense, including soft drinks, mocktails and even a bottled water brand.

A small world that runs on networking

From there, one thing led to another: journalists talking about him, a communications agency introducing him to a brand, one brand recommending him to the next. Like every professional sector, the wine and spirits industry is a small world where trust travels fast.

5. Do you need a separate website for commercial clients?

For Benjamin, yes. When he decided to seriously develop his drinks photography, he created a second website, dedicated solely to professionals. His reasoning: a spirits brand landing on his website should immediately see images it can relate to. Wedding photos would be of no interest to it, and the reverse is true for engaged couples.

As Eloa points out, weddings, like studio family photography, sometimes suffer from an unflattering image among commercial clients. Two separate shop windows are a way to be "very pro with the pros." With a website builder for photographers, running two targeted websites is far from impossible.

When weddings open doors to brands

Still, the two worlds sometimes meet. A brand for which Benjamin had only shot bottles in the studio hired him to cover a promotional tour of bars... after seeing his wedding photos. It wanted to know what he could do with movement, capturing moments as they happen.

6. How do you photograph glasses and bottles?

Eloa remembers a job shooting high-end door handles: on such shiny surfaces, every reflection becomes a headache. Benjamin confirms that photographing reflective objects is not something you can improvise. He experimented, ran test after test, bought books, and took a course with a food photographer based near Paris.

His ranking of the difficulties:

• Small objects such as watches and jewelry: the most technical, a real matter of experience.
• Bottles: very technical, especially in "lifestyle" settings, when the bottle has to stand out while still looking natural in the scene.
• Glasses: technical too, but less tricky than bottles.

"You feel your way, you run tests, you do your research, you buy books."

Benjamin Brette

7. Who decides on the image during a cocktail shoot?

It all depends on the client. Benjamin distinguishes between two situations.

For the trade press: free rein, within a brief

For magazines, he sets off with his assignment in hand (for example, three cocktails to shoot in a given Paris bar) and handles everything himself, styling included. He has a lot of freedom, but within an editorial line:

• a lighting style agreed with the editorial team;
• photos that are always vertical, with room for text;
• one or two "signature features" of the venue (a piece of furniture, a painting, a decoration) so the bar stays recognizable and the image doesn't feel anonymous.

For brands: a team effort

With a brand, he works directly with the marketing teams, sometimes with a communications agency or an art director. Then three or four opinions have to be brought into agreement, which can take hours. As food photographer Fanette Rickert also explains, styling is sometimes handed to specialists, and the photographer focuses on the lighting.

For Benjamin, one thing is clear: these are commissioned photos, meant to be used by the brand within a specific scope. That is why it pays to set out the media, duration and price of the image usage in a contract, since all three are negotiated and billed.

"If I'd charged in like a big bull pushing everything around, I wouldn't have done everything I've done today."

Benjamin Brette

8. How do you keep your style from one world to the other?

Benjamin came to photography through architecture, sometimes abstract. His sources of inspiration are very geometric, and this taste for graphic lines runs through all his work: he brings it into his wedding coverage when it fits, just as he does in his cocktail compositions. Eloa agrees: you can feel that visual world in his weddings.

Places he never imagined he would get into

For Benjamin, the best surprise of his ten years in the business has been the doors photography has opened for him:

• Roland-Garros: commissioned by a lighting manufacturer, he photographed the Philippe-Chatrier court under construction, while the roof and lighting were being installed.
• Versailles: during a brand event, he found himself alone in the Hall of Mirrors at 11 p.m.
• Pierre Cardin's Palais Bulles (Bubble Palace): he photographed two weddings there, inside a true architectural work of art.

On the cocktail side, he has tasted some unexpected recipes: a gorgonzola-infused negroni, a cocktail made with beef juice. Mixology, he sums up, is liquid cooking: the same work of pairing flavors as a chef's.

9. Weddings and brands: a seasonal balance

Benjamin's two businesses fit together perfectly on the calendar. Weddings are concentrated in the warmer months and on weekends; drinks photography is spread over the rest of the year, without the pressure of a single date.

Documentary work on one side, studio work on the other: "the best of both worlds," in his words. He has no desire to open a portrait studio. His third passion, street photography, remains a personal pleasure, with no aim of making money from it.

Episode recorded in January 2021, during the pandemic. Benjamin notes that his couples did not want to keep photos of face masks, contrary to what he had expected.

10. Should you specialize or take on new kinds of projects?

Eloa sums up the two schools of thought: specialize in one niche to become the best at it, or take on several activities (school photos, maternity, weddings, corporate). Benjamin refuses to pick a side. You can love classical music and metal; you can also diversify your income out of economic necessity, and that is just as honorable. Those who dig deep into a single discipline often do remarkable work too.

A client's trust is worth its weight in gold

His real advice is about boldness. Roland-Garros, the magazine, the brands: each time, people came to him for work he had never done before.

"Don't be too afraid to say yes. When someone gives you their trust, you shouldn't be too quick to say no."

Benjamin Brette

As long as you are transparent: say that it is new to you, then move heaven and earth to deliver. Gratitude toward the person who trusts you is, in his view, the best motivation there is. And the fundamentals stay the same from one photo to the next: light, framing, technique. With those, you are equipped for "99.99% of the job."

He ends with a reminder to stay humble: a commercial photographer is not an artist who dictates everything. Clearly defining what is expected in the contract, listening to the client and being willing to compromise is the key to a good working relationship.

Mistakes to avoid when branching out into cocktail photography

FAQ: becoming a cocktail photographer