MSP Home // Lyons' Den
Photographing feature stories for Mpls / St. Paul Home Magazine has been so much fun! These projects bring me into spaces that are beyond amazing and I always walk away a bit inspired by people's style! The March issue featured the home of Anna and Chris Lyon, who are an active part of the Minneapolis community. This shoot also landed the cover of the issue and I am so happy with the way the article turned out!
Zeus Jones // 3M Scotch Blue Painters Tape
A new campaign for 3m's Scotch blue painters tape has launched and I am super happy to be a part of this project. I worked with an extremely talented crew from zeus jones, capture film co. and lulu painting to bring some inspiration to those embarking on DIY home painting. The main goal of this project was to show how easy and approachable it is to pattern your own designs in home, while leaving the viewers with some great ideas and tips on how to technically make a project like this efficient and easy.
Capture Film Co. made some incredible videos and my job was to take some step-by-step photos to, you know, make instructions 'cool' and show the process in a way that is easy to follow. Our team spent 3 days on location actually making, painting and creating all of these patterns and we had such a great time! the 3M website is currently featuring the videos + photos as part of their 2016 pattern forecast.
I know I say this all of the time, but a major part of what I love about my job is collaborating with other creatives. This crew was just one of the best and I'm so grateful to be a part of it!
Chef Joe Johnson // A Portrait
Last night, I happened upon an event in Manhattan and was able to pull aside Chef Joe 'JJ' Johnson of The Cecil aside for a portrait. I had about 2 minutes of his time and an empty office with a window to work with...and I just love how this turned out. Sometimes, it is that simple.
Best New Chef // Food & Wine Magazine
in Editorial
The July issue of Food & Wine just hit the news stands and I am THRILLED to be a part of not one - but two! - features in this issue! The first is the exciting news of Chef Jim Christiansen being named one of the Best New Chefs of 2015! Jim is one of 10 amazing chefs from around the country to receive this honor and I couldn't be happier from him! I've had the pleasure of photographing Jim + the entire crew at his restaurant Heyday over the years and it has been so cool to see all of their growth and also how much of a team effort they all give!
For this story, we photographed the "Trend Setting Dishes" and I just love how it all turned out! Of course, we pulled this off with our own amazing crew - a big thank you to Liz Gardner for food styling and to Melissa Hesse for assisting this day! Food & Wine has been on my dream list for a long time and I am incredibly proud to begin this relationship with them! Make sure to check out the full July issue of Food & Wine to check out the full spread + see who all the Best New Chefs are! We'll be sharing more images from this shoot later this summer, but in the mean time, here are some behind-the-scene photos, too!
New York Magazine's Grub Street
Two dishes from the über talented chefs of Spoon and Stable and Heyday were featured on New York Magazine's food blog, Grub Street! These images were a part of a feature about "103 of the Most Visually Exciting Dishes in America". So happy to be a part of this!
FARMERS MARKET // TEST SHOOT
Because some mornings you wake up and you just HAVE to make something. A quick trip to the farmers market was in order - and I was on a mission to find the prettiest colors and shapes that I could for the day. These are all so simple, but I'm pretty happy to have created today.
Food + Color // Test Shoot
in Editorial
I have always believed in test shoots. They are a way to collaborate and try our ideas, new ways of shooting and if we're lucky, a little portfolio building. I've been shooting a lot of food the last couple of years and they are some of my favorite assignments. I seem to connect with food and the culture around it so naturally, but I wanted to create a little something out of the box and new. I've had the idea of mono-chromatic food in my head for a while now. Like, what if we made food poster art? What if we photographed food in a modern, minimalist, graphic way?
I gathered some of my most talented friends and colleagues, Chef Jon Wipfli of The Minnesota Spoon, Creative Director Liz Gardner and my Editor Liz Hardt to join me and we simply had an afternoon of creating. It was fun, it was chill and I love the way these images turned out! Everyone gave their time and talents to this idea, and I am very grateful for that! Personally, test shoots like this fuel my creativity and make my work stronger and I think shoots like this are so necessary as artists. Check out the little series of Food + Color below, along with the behind-the-scene photos!
BEHIND THE SCENES //
Welcome to the new site!
Welcome to the new site! It always feels like a huge accomplishment to update and refresh our online presence, but as we all know, this is usually one of those projects that sits on the back burner for a long time. Seeing all of the updated work together makes me so, so proud.
We've been hustling. Like, for real, in the last few years, I have taken on a lot of new clients and expanded our editorial portfolio *quite* a bit. I feel like I've been working at an insane pace and I have to take a moment to say THANK YOU to my team. From our interns to our assistants to our production team - I truly can not thank you enough. You all know who you are and you support me on a daily basis to create the best work possible. For all of the Art Directors, Editors, Project Managers and Producers that we have worked with - thank you for pushing us creatively and hiring us for these opportunities. I also need to specifically thank Loop, Liz, Josef, Sara, Shawn and Conor for all of the critique and technical help I needed to put this together.
As I began editing down this new body of images I realized that in many ways there is a whole new shift to the work that we are embarking on and we are also hitting our stride a bit. While still focusing on portraiture and lifestyle images we have begun to incorporate more food and location photography as well. It's all so exciting and I can't wait to see where we continue to go.
I hope you enjoy the new look and the new work!
NEAL Jewelry Lookbook + Launch
in Fashion, Commercial, Editorial
I was happy to photograph the new look book for NEAL Jewelry's latest collection, NOVA. The brand, formally known as Carrier Pigeon, just relaunched as NEAL Jewelry and with this, came a whole new look. Liz Gardner of Bodega, ltd. had a huge part in both the concept and styling of this shoot, where much of the inspiration came from the new colors of NEAL + the 90's. Mom jeans, Linda Evangelista, all of it. Heather Byington was our talent and Romeny Chan lent her talents for all of the hair + makeup. Below are some of my favorite images from the shoot, along with some behind the scene photos.
