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.

2016 James Beard Awards

May 06, 2016 in Editorial

The 2016 James Beard Awards happened this week in Chicago and I was beyond honored and thrilled to be a part of documenting this night. Photographing an event at this caliber is a full production and I had an amazing time working with the James Beard Foundation and their team. I shot alongside 3 other photographers that night, as well as my assistant, Jackson Faith.

Our specific focus for the night was on the VIP dinner, which was made by Cosmo Goss of Publican, Erling Wu-Bower of Nico Osteria, Perry Hendrix of Avec and Nicole Guini of Blackbird. Their teams hustled to create some amazing dishes for the guests backstage as the awards, which were hosted by Carla Hall, began.

The night was an amazing experience and I wanted to share a few of my favorite moments. I especially wanted to give a little nod to our hometown of Minneapolis - and a big congratulations to Chef Paul Berglund of The Bachelor Farmer who won the award for Best Chef: Midwest. Beyond that, it was exciting to see so many faces from our city represented!

Erling Wu-Bower of Nico Osteria // VIP dinner prep

The Salty Tart //

January 29, 2016 in Editorial, Commercial

Salty Tart has released a new website and I am so happy to have been a part of this project! I have admired Chef Gayer for a long time - her energy, her hustle, and her amazing baked goods, so being asked to photograph new images for her was a dream.

We wanted to bring a light and fresh look to her bakery and also a subtlety to the images - we wanted her gorgeous baked goods to speak for themselves. Everything that Michelle and her team make is rustic, free form, from scratch - and down right beautiful. We collaborated with Liz Gardner from Bodega LTD. on the styling for this shoot and came up with a series of images that are just so damn pretty. We also spent time at the bakery of Salty Tart and caught some of the real moments of their team working.

Behind the Scenes //

Food and Wine Magazine // January 2016

January 01, 2016 in Editorial

The January issue of Food and Wine magazine is officially on newsstands and I couldn't be more excited about starting off the year with this feature. The story is all about hot dish - naturally a midwest classic. Chef Gavin Kaysen modernized some of his classic recipes and along with some good ole Lutheran church ladies - we debated the age old question - is it called Casserole or Hot Dish?

It's always such a pleasure to photograph for Food and Wine and for this project, we collaborated with Jon Wipfli of The Minnesota Spoon to lend a hand as our food stylist. Together with the F&W team and Chef Kaysen, we took over Gavin's restaurant, Spoon and Stable, for this on-location shoot.

I am so pumped about this story, you must definitely check it out - and don't forget those fun behind-the-scene photos below! As always, thank you to our crew + the staff at Spoon and Stable for letting us take over!

Behind the Scenes//

PDN 2015 TASTE FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD WINNER //

November 05, 2015 in Editorial, For The Pro's, Commercial

Well, this is really so very fun! It's been a solid four to five years since I last entered a professional photo competition, but a couple of months ago a great friend of mine sent me an e-mail with a link to PDN's TASTE Food Photography Awards competition. It was one of those days where you had just enough time to whip together a submission and I sent off my photos - if anything, just happy to have them in front of the amazing judge's panel (which was filled with a load of talent).

To be honest though, when it comes to submitting for anything - to be published, for competition, etc. I am of the mindset that I 'submit and forget'. There's too much going on here to dwell on if we are going to win or not and I always want to stay focused on the clients and projects at hand.

However, when you get news that you WON! that is something to be excited about, take a moment and celebrate! I am happy to say that we are one of four winners in the Professional Editorial category, with a series of images that were created for the July 2015 issue of Food & Wine Magazine, featuring Jim Christiansen of Heyday and his award as Best New Chef! Liz Gardner did the styling on this shoot and it just turned out to be a magical set of images that I couldn't be more pleased about.

PDN is a global leader in the photography industry and to be a part of this roster is a HUGE honor. I'm just happy that this opportunity came across and that we actually took the time to submit. It's a great reminder that sharing your work and taking a risk is most definitely worth it!

Check out all of the winners here!

Best New Chef // Food & Wine Magazine

June 30, 2015 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!

Food + Color // Test Shoot

April 24, 2015 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 //

NEAL Jewelry Lookbook + Launch

March 16, 2015 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.

BEHIND THE SCENES

MSP Style Makers // September 2014

September 02, 2014 in Editorial, Portrait

The month of September brings a new issue of MSP Magazine to the newsstands and I have been SO excited to share this for quite some time. I was asked to photograph the cover + feature story for the magazine and this turned out to be one of my most favorite projects of the year. In the magazine world, the 'September' issue is always usually centered around fashion and style. MSP chose to highlight real people, who influence the style in Minneapolis, for their issue this year. I must say - this was one room packed with powerful, successful and very creative individuals. Minneapolis always seems to constantly provide a city full of talent and I always feel so lucky that my job allows me to cross paths with many of these people. I often leave feeling very inspired. As for my crew, we pulled together our dream-team to make this happen! Special thanks to Flashlight Photo Rental, Romeny Chan and her crew for hair & makeup, Liz Gardner of MSP for art direction, design and styling, Liz Hardt for post production and Ali Kaplan of MSP for writing the article. This issue is special, because the cover is not one - but two pages! It's a gatefold cover that highlights all of the talented people in the feature. As for the individual portraits inside the magazine, we wanted to show every person's style, so we asked them to come along with their own belongings to be styled. My job was then to capture everyone's personalities - in one frame. Below are the spreads that are published in the issue, along with some of the behind-the-scene photos from our shoot! (Special thanks to our interns, Hanna and Melissa for these!) Here's a list of our Style Makers for this article, they are people you will surely want to follow:

Lisa Castro // Director of Design for Target

Keith Dorsett // Manager at Heimie's Haberdashery

Dahlia Brue // Owner of IDUN

Devin O'Brien // Co-founder of Search and State Clothing

Courtney Vincent // Associate Creative Director at Peterson Milla Hooks

Madelynn Furlong // Blogger of Wide Eyed Legless

Charley Brackney // Creative Director and Co-Founder of HAUS Salon

Lane Weinberg // Co-Founder and Designer of Kokoon clothing

Jim Smart // Owner of Smart Associates design firm

Best Pizza in Minneapolis // MSP Magazine // August 2014

August 28, 2014 in Editorial

Before this month of August slips past us, I have to share two features that we were a part of in Minneapolis / St Paul Magazine! First, we added another cover to our roster, and I absolutely love how it turned out! August was all about the best pizza in Minneapolis and the surrounding areas. The cover pizza is from Red Wagon Pizza and I love how the beets and arugula popped out to readers and passersby on the newsstand - and props to MSP Design Director, Liz Gardner, on the great design. I think the guys at Red Wagon thought I was a little crazy, when I was moving the pizzas all around to find a great space to shoot them on. Turns out, an asphalt driveway was the winner! I've been photographing a lot of food this past year and I have really, really enjoyed it. Above all, I am able to immerse myself in the local food culture of Minneapolis, which is one of my favorite aspects of this city. This feature took me to Pig Ate my Pizza, Pizzeria Pezzo, Cossettas, Hello Pizza, Randy's Pizza, Two Pony's Pizza Farm and Red Wagon Pizza. I met so many great people, who are passionate about creating the best experience ever for their guests and I am so happy with how this turned out! The second feature in the August issue that we worked on is all about Social Media! You can read all about that here!