Food Gallery Catering // A Rebrand + Refresh

When I was asked to photograph the GORGEOUS rebrand for Food Gallery Catering, I couldn’t help but squeal with delight. This longtime, badass catering company was putting art forward in their imagery. They partnered with our friends at Minna Studio to bring their vision to life. A catering company that is modern, artful, women-owned and creative. They know how to throw a damn good party (in their words - and I agree wholeheartedly.)

The art direction and mood boards were enough to make anyone swoon and creating these images has been a true pleasure!

You can check out their website with the full design and rebrand here. below are some of my favorite images!

LOVEe

Brightwater Clothing | 2025 Look Book

Every year I am lucky enough to photograph the look book for Brightwater Clothing. It’s become an annual tradition and family experience with those involved and the this year we went big in Breckenridge, Colorado! It was beyond fun to photograph in this location - to have the mountains, the snow and the change of weather that made for amazing photos! I also experimented with a black and white film grain for this shoot. I never sway from my beloved black and white processing, but this particular shoot called for something more moody and nostalgic. We spent three days in this mountain village and captured various moments, brands and experiences for the store. Here’s a peek at some of my favorites!

LOVEe

Cover of the 2025 Look book for Brightwater Clothing

Brightwater Clothing | 2024 Lookbook

Photographing the annual Brightwater Clothing Lookbook is one of my favorite jobs all year! This year marked the seventh series of images I have created for this company. Bill Damberg, owner of Brightwater Clothing, is one of the most generous people I know and the curation of his collections each year reflect his warmth and love for the great outdoors.

2024 took us to Ely, Minnesota where our team met up with a few locals to join the fun. Peter Schurke, Nordic skipper and dogsled guide, stopped by before his next adventure, which was super cool to see! The owners of Ely Bike & Kicksled showed us around their shop and the town.

This was the winter-that-wasn’t in Minnesota, so snow was at a minimum. Instead I leaned into blue skies, the texture and rich earthy tones of the thawed ground and the ice that was still holding strong!

Below are some of my favorite images and a preview of this year’s final design!

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PRODUCTION TEAM//

Client: Brightwater Clothing

Photographer: Eliesa Johnson

Art Director + Design: Bethany Hway

Copy Writer: John DuBois

Copy Editor: Steve Waryan

Jewelry: Helen Wang

Sponsors + Spirits: New France Wine Company, 3Leche and MN Pure Clear Ice

Celebrating 18 Years of Business!

Today marks 18 years of business. Wow. What started as a little dream of being a photographer and working for myself, has turned into four separate but connected businesses. It has also required me to show up – every day – for 18 years; it has taught me tenacity, resilience, and just how believing in yourself (and more importantly, those around you) can lead to creating such beautiful things. 

Image by Stephanie Sunberg

I’ve always been an advocate of collaboration and building the businesses over the years has happened very organically because of it. I’ve been so lucky to have such talented artists come through our studio doors and be a part of the work. I’ve been even luckier to have retained such incredible talent for so many of these years. The work that we create together is what I am endlessly proud of.

So, where are we now? At Year 18, here’s an update on all of the things we’re doing at our NE MPLS studio:

The Restaurant Project™: This is the youngest but fastest growing branch of our business. Over the last 6 years, TRP has grown into a collective of photographers, creatives, videographers, brand builders and content strategists who make marketing easier for restaurants and food brands. This year, we're working to refine our processes, make space for artistic exploration and develop a few new packages to offer, particularly for businesses in the startup stage looking for a one-stop creative shop. We're very excited for what's to come here—for our clients and our team!

Rivets and Roses: Our wedding photography studio currently features the work of four AMAZING photographers. As Melissa, Jess, Ben, and Tara embark on this year’s wedding season, I am so excited to see the work that they will all create for our clients. Every season I am endlessly inspired by their work! Our mission at Rivets is to support all couples getting married. With PRIDE month coming up in June, our studio will be rolling out information on the ways that we are continuing to support the LGBTQ+ community. I am so very proud of this work and the impact it is making for our clients.

Eliesa Johnson Photography: I’m still rolling along with this work! Eliesa Johnson Photography encompasses all of the editorial and commercial work that I personally lead. It’s a beautiful place where I get to go on assignment with just me and my camera or even better, a large production crew of the best freelancers around. There are some very exciting projects I’ve been working on that I can’t wait to share once they are released! 

Photogen Inc.: This is the original company; the foundation of it all. It has been steady and strong over the years. Photogen Inc. is the space where I come to photograph luxury weddings, which have taken me around the world. I am so grateful for these opportunities! Photographing weddings is still something that I greatly enjoy and it grounds me. I have had the pleasure of working alongside some of the absolute best wedding vendors, who are true artists in their own right! While I only choose a select few weddings each year now to photograph, I am always excited to see where each season will take me and the amazing couples and families I get to spend time with! 

What are my hopes for the future? 

To empower our clients

To support our artists

To create iconic images

To continue to have longevity in our industry

Que Viet // The Restaurant Project

Que Viet is a family owned Vietnamese restaurant and a cornerstone of food in Minneapolis. This winter, The Restaurant Project worked with the restaurant to update their imagery for their online ordering, website and social presence! Since the start of the pandemic, take out food has been king. Part of our inspiration in going into this photoshoot for Que Viet was asking ourselves, “How can we elevate the takeout game? How can we create images that inspired us?” I absolutely love how these images turned out - they are moody, but vibrant, rich and inviting.

Here are a few examples of how the restaurant incorporated the images for their online menus!

Martina x The Restaurant Project

About a year and a half ago, I had coffee with Chef Daniel del Prado. He told me about the ideas behind his first breakout restaurant, which was to be called Martina. I left that meeting feeling very inspired by the team of people he was bringing together and how their vision was lead by creativity.

This was a perfect project for our team over at The Restaurant Project and over a couple of days, we harnessed the most badass light to make some amazing images happen. It’s always so exciting for me to bring a vision to life, but when the light works out like it did these days, it truly is pure magic!

Needless to say, Martina has been a big hit and we’re so proud of seeing their hard work pay off. Below are some of my favorite images from our shoot with Martina and The Restaurant Project!

American Express | Minneapolis Digital Campaign!

Some new work we photographed this summer for American Express has started to roll out! The images feature various shops & restaurants in Minneapolis - along with a shoutout to our northern cabins! Melissa Hesse and I both photographed this digital campaign and it was so fun to document some of our favorite spots in our city! Big thanks to Spoon and Stable, The Foundry Home Goods, Rise Bagel Co. and The Walker Art Museum for being a part of the shoot!

2018 PDN TASTE AWARDS | THREE TIME WINNER!

We’ve got some very exciting news that we’ve been waiting to share! The results of the 2018 PDN Magazine Taste Awards have been released, and together, with myself and The Restaurant Project, we won not one, not two, but THREE awards this year! Of the five categories, we swept three of them, including: Editorial, Commercial, and Personal Work.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Taste Awards, they are sponsored by PDN Magazine, which is an industry standard in the photography world. The photography industry is a pretty nerdy group of people and we don’t have ‘Grammy’ or ‘Oscar’ awards. What we do have is the Taste Awards. This is a global competition and awards given to a select few photographers around the world. The panel of judges are professional Photo Editors, Designers, Photographers, and Art Directors from publications such as Cherry Bombe and Food & Wine Magazine.

We have had the honor of winning awards in the Commercial and Editorial categories for the last two years. However, to sweep three of the five categories this year is simply overwhelming. We’re so proud of the work we create on a daily basis for our clients and it’s a true honor to be among the best food photographers in the world!

Below are some of the winning images!

LOVEe

A Place At The Table

A Place At The Table Website

This project is shifting gears a little bit and I love it! My mother-in-law runs a business out of her home for adults with Alzheimers or Dementia. For those of you who have ever dealt with an aging parent, you know how important it is for your loved ones to be taken care of at a great place. The farm is a very special place to me - it's a retreat, a gorgeous piece of property and a place filled with happiness. It's really cool to see the joy that Amy's clients have while living here.

Amy and her staff give the best experience to their clients and this year they focused on the business side of things, which included a new website! It was so fun to collaborate with Amy and her designer Joa on this project. We spent a day at the farm, documenting a day in the life of all who live there and it was simply so much fun! Below are a few of my favorite images, but check out the full website here to see more!

Da Bomb Bath Fizzers

You might have heard of Isabel and Caroline Bercaw - they are the 'sisterpreneurs' behind the growing brand, Da Bomb Bath Fizzers. Isabel and Caroline are now 15 and 16 years old, but they started their company at the young age of 10 and 11. Their company now employs over 150 people and their products are in over 5000 stores - quite an accomplishment! 

Since launching their company, Isabel and Caroline have grown a lot - both personally and professionally. It was time to update their image, along with some product photography and I was thrilled to be on board for this project. Together with our crew (Fatima Olive on hair & makeup and Judith Marilyn styling), we created a series of fun images that the girls will be able to use for their upcoming campaigns, social media and press requests! Here are some of our favorite images from the shoot!