Ros Atkinson, known to an entranced legion of Instagram disciples as @her_dark_materials, is a food and lifestyle photographer based in the Cotswolds.

Her deeply atmospheric shoots are works of art, their breath-taking compositions steeped in the 16th-century Dutch still life tradition, and so evocative that we invariably yearn to while away whole days at her kitchen table.

Here, she shares just a few of the magical components that make for a life beautifully lived.

 

Being a freelancer, I’m constantly thrown into new situations, with very knowledge of what’s awaiting me. I quite like the fact that I have to snap into action in an unfamiliar scenario and produce something I’m really proud of. It keeps my mind fresh and teaches me never to take anything for granted.

 

I just went up to London to see an old friend. We bought flowers from Columbia Road Flower Market, and then spent the afternoon photographing them – a creative play date, if you like. Then we had cheese and wine, and then I hopped on the train home. That was up there with some good ones.

My first pair of scissors. I’m left-handed and couldn’t cut out at school, quite the trauma. My father brought me back some left-handed scissors, I must have been about six, and it was life changing. Also, photos of my children, and my father’s last voicemails before he died.

Turkish eggs. A mix of garlic-infused yoghurt, poached eggs, chilli sizzle in butter, and a flurry of dill over the top. Big buttery sourdough dunkers. No one can resist.

Niche. I like watching Italian films.

My mother had a museum, and my early inspirations were shelves of fossils, and minerals. If I was off school, I’d get to organise drawers of fossils in her storeroom. I find museums very therapeutic and full of amazing stories.

My friend Danny just wrote a book called The Good Kitchen: Love and Connection Through Food about a community kitchen he founded in Sicily. I shot the book, mostly on the hoof, no stylist or props, just bare bones of what was there. I have loved reading the stories about how to set up a community kitchen in the middle of Sicily.

My friend has the most gorgeous Bed and Breakfast near Burford. She used to be a fashion buyer (‘Lacroix, darling!’) and the whole house is what I like to describe as Versailles meets the Cotswolds.

 

So many. I could write a list a mile long. But, if you’re in the Cotswolds, try to stray off the beaten track and go to Chloe’s in Charlbury or the Killingwoth Castle.

 

Again, too hard to choose, but Artemisia Gentileschi, a sort of female Caravaggio, fascinates me.

 

S Club 7, Reach for the Stars. My family comes from Cornwall and every time I drove down when the children were little, for years and years on end, that song would be played on a loop. For five hours solid. I absolutely loathed it then but I find myself plunged into the most lovely nostalgia if I hear it now.

 

Oh, definitely Kate Winslet. For multiple reasons.

 

My eldest daughter, who I dress up in all the Cabbages and Roses clothes. If I had her work ethic, I’d have three private jets by now!

I love pottering, but am quite random and would go from one to the other without noticing.

 

I love going to a big city, but I’m more at home in the country.

 

Neither. I am most at home in the middle of the day.

Land Girl attire.

 

I have a pair of gloves, much darned, that my great grandmother knitted me.

 

I always wanted to write those really surreal jokes on lollipop sticks.

Every season, there’s about three coats that I try and manifest into my wardrobe. The art of coating is one of Cabbages and Roses’ strongest talents. Each one – and I have many – is so well made, from fabric and lining and structure down to the little details like ribbons, and buttons. Absolute works of art.