The day Kieran Scott decided to focus on food, in the late 1980s, he arranged some pasta, tomatoes and basil on a table and shot them from overhead. People thought he was mad, but he was just beginning to rewrite the rules of the genre.

A master of natural light and composition, Kieran seeks to capture the decisive moment, and a decisive moment for him was, as a schoolboy, discovering the photography section at the public library in Timaru. There he absorbed the gritty images of the Magnum photographers that continue to inform his work.

A professional musician until 1987, he then turned gypsy photographer and did a diploma in London before continuing to travel and experiment.

Back in New Zealand, Kieran photographed Marlborough vineyards during the 1991 harvest. Sold to an image library in London, they were the first stock shots of the nascent wine industry.

His work was soon picked up by premium magazines in Australasia and he started shooting pioneering features of his own design – winemakers dining at home, documentary-style with portraits and action, or a chef cooking on the beach – creating images full of energy and movement.