Brightwater Clothing & Gear | 2019 Look Book

December 17, 2018 in Editorial, Fashion

Last March I hopped in a car and drove up to Ely Lake, MN with a bunch of friends to photograph a project for Bill Damberg and his store, Brightwater Clothing. Brightwater is a fantastically curated store in Excelsior, Minnesota and for this shoot, we travelled to Bill’s family cabin to set the scene. This shoot was magic and here’s why - to be honest, there wasn’t a lot of production. There wasn’t a lot of thought, but there was intention. The idea was simple - lets get some rad people together and they can all do what they enjoy best. Lets document a brilliant day on the lake and see what happens.

What happened was one of the most organic and beautiful shoots I had all year and I’m so happy to say that the 2018 / 2019 Winter Look Book for Brightwater is now live! Below are some of my favorite spreads and some fun behind the scenes!

LOVEe

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BEHIND THE SCENES//

Mpls / St. Paul Magazine | Best New Restaurants!

December 06, 2018 in Editorial

The December issue of Minneapolis / St. Paul Magazine is on newsstands now and y’all should run and get it! We’re so happy to have another cover for this publication and the issue features the Best New Restaurants of 2018! For this story, we divided and conquered the restaurants with the magazine’s talented photographer, Caitlin Abrams. We were given Colita, Popol Vuh and Eastside to photograph and I love how the images turned out!

This year’s list is pretty wonderful! Below are the pages that feature our work and there is so much more to this story in the magazine! Big thanks to Marco Zappia, Morgan Lent, Daniel Del Prado, José Alarcon and Jamie Malone for being our amazing subjects!

LOVEe

American Express | Minneapolis Digital Campaign!

December 03, 2018 in Commercial

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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!

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2018 PDN TASTE AWARDS | THREE TIME WINNER!

November 26, 2018 in LOVEe, For The Pro's, Commercial, Editorial

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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

Becca Kufrin | Minnesota Monthly

October 11, 2018

This summer we had the pleasure of photographing Becca Kufrin, recently The Bachelorette! Minnesota Monthly ran a lovely story about Becca for their October issue, which is currently on newsstands! The shoot took place at Studio 125 in Minneapolis and we had the best day with Becca and her lovely mother, Jill! Make sure to check out the issue - it’s a fun one!

LOVEe

BEHIND THE SCENES//

Print The Love Benefit | Artist Talk with Eliesa Johnson

September 10, 2018 in For The Pro's, Editorial

I'm super excited to be the keynote speaker for Print The Love's 2018 benefit. If you're not familiar with the organization, I'd love to introduce you. Print The Love is a non profit that serves the world with instant photographs. They focus on celebrating the value and dignity of individuals in under-resourced communities through the gift of a photograph. Obviously, the mission of this organization resonates with me, because it is what I practice on a daily basis. I greatly believe that a photograph captures a valuable moment in time. I also believe that photographs are one of our most prized possessions that we have in life. Print the Love gives the gift of photography and moments to those who otherwise would not have access to ever having their lives documented - how cool is that?

In thinking about what to talk about for this evening, I landed on "The Power and Purpose of an Image". It will be a reflection upon creating images that have moment and the impact they can have on a community. This will be a great talk for artists who are professional photographers, as well as those who are hobbyists. All are welcome and I hope everyone can walk away a little inspired.

Proceeds from the evening will go towards Print the Love's work around the world as their team heads to Cambodia on November 1st! I look forward to seeing y'all there!

Buy your tickets!

Nordic Ware | Bake from Scratch Magazine

August 20, 2018 in Editorial

*Portrait of Dotty Dalquist in her home kitchen for Bake From Scratch Magazine*

One of my favorite editorial stories from this summer has hit the news stands! Bake from Scratch Magazine wrote an incredible article about Dotty Dalquist of Nordic Ware. You know the classic bundt pan? Dotty and her husband Dave created this baking staple in 1950. Dotty is now 92 years old and still the matriarch of both her family and the company. I had the pleasure of hearing her tell the stories of how they built their business, raised their family and brought over 400 products to people's kitchens that sell out still to this day! There is so much knowledge, inspiration, nurturing and hard work that has gone into making Nordic Ware what it is today and I loved being a part of sharing this story with the world! If you get the chance - definitely pick up the September / October issue for a full read!

Behind The Scenes//

Wildscape x Zeus Jones

July 18, 2018

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No one has ever loved frozen food - until now. Our team at The Restaurant Project collaborated with Zeus Jones to bring to life the new branding for Wildscape Foods and the new work was just released! Wildscape is a frozen food brand that truly offers fresh and healthy ingredients in their meals - and they are also vegetable forward! The inspiration for this shoot was to create fresh, colorful imagery that conveys the vibrancy of each meal.

The team at Zeus Jones, who is one of our favorite agencies to work with, had really laid out a great foundation for this product line and it was so much fun to bring to life! We spent two days at Studio 125 in Minneapolis and had an all-star team! I love how these images turned out and I hope you do, too!

LOVEe

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BEHIND THE SCENES

A Place At The Table

April 16, 2018 in Commercial

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!

Kelly Janke | Food Stylist

April 11, 2018 in Editorial

I first met Kelly this past year on one of her trips home to Minneapolis. Kelly is a wildly talented food stylist on ABC's The Chew and she wanted to start building her own personal brand, in addition to the work she does for TV. I was honored when she asked me to photograph this for her and as we began to talk, her energy just started to shine through.

Kelly is playful, fun and truly loves food. She also understands how to make basically anything look and taste beautiful, so photographing her food wasn't hard at all. She did want to bring a minimalist theme + color theory to the shoot, only focusing on a grey and white color scheme so the food can shine through. I love the way these all turned out! You can check out more of Kelly's work on her new site!

LOVEe