Mpls / St. Paul Magazine | Hidden Gems and The Ones to Watch

December 21, 2020 in Editorial

This October I had the absolute pleasure of photographing the feature story for Mpls / St. Paul Magazine. Traditionally the fall story is about retailers, but with all that 2020 has brought to our attention through Social Justice, Activism, and a heated election, this year’s story required more depth. This was also one of the first editorial features I photographed since Covid changed everything this year in March and it felt SO good to photograph a story that held so much meaning and importance.

The three subjects that were a part of this story were Nicole Jennings of Queen Anna House of Fashion who has also started a community called Elevate & Amplify. The purpose of this is to raise awareness and allyship with Black-Owned businesses and also a space to have a conversation on how to be an ally in business. Next, we have Houston White, who is the wonderful human behind HWMR in North Minneapolis. Houston has recently raised $50,000 to expand his barbershop in North into more of a community space and coffee shop experience. He has also embarked on several collaborations with Target and Martin Patrick 3. Lastly, we have Larissa Loden who created the VOTE jewelry line to raise awareness around voting before the election. Her jewelry went viral and her activist heart matches this message.

It felt incredible to be a part of this story, but also to take the time and sit, listen and really connect with each of these individuals who are doing so much for our city and our world right now!

Below are some of my favorite images that were un-published. I love the mood and energy in all of them!

Mpls / St Paul Weddings Magazine | Spring / Summer 2020

April 13, 2020 in Editorial, Fashion

A lot has changed in the last six months, let along a single day right now in our world! On the bright side, I have some new work to share that is rolling out on newsstands. Last fall I photographed the fashion editorial for the Spring / Summer 2020 issue of Mpls / St Paul Weddings Magazine and I love the energy that these image have!

Our goal was to create images that focused on movement and motion with the dresses. We photographed this shoot at the new Backspace Mpls studio and had a dream-team of talent on set! Besides our crew, talented photographer Michael Spear joined our team to assist for the day and he took some stellar behind-the-scene photographs with his film camera. They are so cool, make sure to check them out below!

Photographer: Eliesa Johnson

Editor: Emily Howald Sefton

Style Editor: Madeline Nachbar

Creative Director: Michael Norseng

Deputy Creative Director: Kim Jackson

Talent: Katherine Preston, Arquette Agency

Hair & Makeup: Fatima Olive

Assistant: Melissa Hesse and Michael Spear

Post Production: Hunny Digital

BEHIND THE SCENES//

Images by Michael J Spear

Mpls / St. Paul Magazine | North Awards Feature

June 13, 2017 in Editorial

This past January, I photographed some portraits for Mpls / St. Paul Magazine's Made in the North story. It featured stories and profiles on the makers behind some of our favorite handcrafted food and products!

What I love about photographing stories like this is learning so much about the people behind the goods. There is so much thought, time and intention behind each of these businesses - it's inspiring. For this article we meet Tim Shore of Shoreboards, Jim Sannerud of J. Sannerud Studios, Mike Phillips of Red Table Meat Co. and Danielle Sakry of Danielle Sakry handbags.

Below are some of my favorite images from this feature - and you can read all about it here.

Mpls / St. Paul Magazine // Citizen Style

December 27, 2016 in Editorial, Portrait

For the September issue of Mpls / St. Paul magazine, I was asked to photograph a set of portraits for their fall fashion story. It turns out that I had a connection to all of the people, which made photographing this all the more special.

When it comes to photographing real people in a 'fashion' sense - I love to still make it feel real. I wanted the portraits to be authentic to who our subjects were and why they had been chosen to highlight their personal style.

I wanted to share some of my favorite outtakes and behind the scenes from this shoot, because the energy with all of our subjects was absolutely amazing! A big thank you to Betsey Kershaw, Kimberly Ferguson, Linda Kaysen and Paul Buttenhoff for all the great moments! You can check out the full story here.

Behind the Scenes//

2015 Design 100 // Mpls / St. Paul Home & Design Magazine

June 14, 2016 in Editorial, Portrait

The Design 100 is one of my favorite stories to be a part of each year. It lives in the pages of Mpls / St Paul Home & Design magazine and I just always love how this turns out. The Design 100 is a story about the 100 best people, products and places that add style to home and design. This includes rad spaces, talented artists and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a lot of our favorite products. Maybe I love this story so much, because it is about the artists and where their hustle comes from.

The images below are from the 2015 Design 100 issue and I was able to photograph a few folks for this article. Big thank you to Ashley Mary Art, Keith Wyman of Concrete Pig, Erin Francois of Francois et Moi and the wonderful Lisa Balke and Susan Blankenship of Victory Vintage.

Mpls St Paul Magazine // Burger Feature

August 12, 2013 in Editorial

Sometimes I take an assignment that is totally out of left field, just to challenge myself. As we all know, I mostly concentrate on photographing people. Whether that be environmental portraits, fashion or ad campaigns - people are usually the main focus of the work I create. When MPLS St Paul Magazine approached me about photographing their burger feature for the August issue, I couldn't help but say yes. I'm a GIANT foodie at heart and it was a challenge I was happy to accept. There are overall 20 pages devoted to burgers in this issue and we had the pleasure of photographing 17 different restaurants for this article! I brought along some help for this shoot - our all-star-intern Melissa and our awesome-video-dude, Chris. Chris was our resident burger-eater when we needed someone to really dive in, but he also offered his talents for this sweet behind-the-scenes video! I also learned that I can shoot one mean burger...