Photographing people, documenting food, editorial coverage of events and businesses – they are all different sides of the same coin. That is to say, what I love is telling stories visually, working in engaging environments, finding the hidden spaces and quiet stories in unexpected places. Some days that is documenting a coffee roaster, or lighting an industrial cheese plant. Sometimes it is documenting local corporate or food events or bringing an engaging eye to headshots for small businesses.
I offer an editorial eye to business, event, and lifestyle sessions. I specialize in food, gatherings, and editorial portraits. My work has appeared in Food and Wine Magazine, Culture Magazine, and in the books Lake Superior Flavors (University of MN press, 2014) and Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin (University of WI Press, 2009). I’m a regular contributor to HeavyTable.com in Minneapolis. I’m also thrilled to work with many local and national businesses to document corporate events, business lifestyle, and editorial portraits.
Event Photography – Cheesetopia, Chicago 2016
I am, of course, a huge fan of local cheese (you can check out the Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin, if you want to know more about my love affair with dairy) and so I was thrilled to document Cheesetopia 2016 in Chicago. A sampling event with purveyors local to the upper Midwest, you can’t find a better place to talk with people who make cheese and taste all that they do to make things so thrilling.
Lake Superior Flavors – editorial published work
My editorial images of Lake Superior, of food artisans, fishermen, bakers, restaurants, and animals, appear in Lake Superior Flavors , (University of Minnesota Press 2014). I’m not sure why it has taken me so long to compile my favorite images (some of which didn’t appear in the book), but I can only suppose it is because the undertaking was large to begin with. My husband Jim and I traveled around the lake several times over the course of a year and in between other projects. Then the editing and promoting of the book. Somewhere in there my father passed away, we had a son, and time has marched on.
Along the way, we ate a lot of smoked fish, went herring fishing at dawn, ate popped wild rice, had a huge selection of pannekoeken, Tim Horton’s coffee, and enjoyed some of the oldest and most beautiful views in the world along the North Shore.
I am honored and thrilled to show off this book of our collaborations together. There were new challenges, both photographically and logistically (how does one keep a camera dry in a herring skiff, how best to convey the vastness of the lake), and that lead to so many new opportunities and triumphs. Jim’s writing is excellent, using food as a lens to discuss history, culture, and community. The lake is a uniting force in the lives, as the mountains are for those who live in the west. You are always aware of where you are in relation to the lake, it brings a gravity to your travels.
Crafting Timpano from Big Night
Developing a recipe for Timpano based on the movie “Big Night” involved many steps, from handmaking pasta to inverting the giant meat, cheese, and egg-filled concoction onto a platter.
Brassarie Zentral Restaurant Minneapolis
Images taken on location at Brassarie Zentral for a review on Heavy Table. Austro-hungarian fine dinner hits Minneapolis.
Twin Cities Cheese finds for Culture Magazine
Featured in Culture Magazine, Documenting a variety of restaurants, delis, and purveyors to show off cheese-interest highlights of the Twin Cities
Crave Brothers – cheese in Wisconsin
Photographing Crave Brothers cheesemaking process and cheesemaker, as well as details of final cheese, methane recapture facility, and dairy farm. My main objective was to bring emotional warmth and connection to the images of the dairy farm and methane recapture. Also, because much of the Crave Brother’s cheese is white (Mozzarella, Mascarpone, Le Frere), I wanted to create compositionally interesting images to bring out the texture of the cheese.
Portraits of Wisconsin Artisan Cheesemakers
On-location portraits of 12 Wisconsin artisan cheesemakers. Create a strong editorial portrait of each cheesemaker while keeping portraits distinctive from one another. Portraits should feel natural, even while using variety of lighting techniques to give shape to sometimes cluttered or dark locations.
Rush Creek Cheese
Perhaps the most interesting cheese to be created since cheddar, Rush Creek is a soft cheese made by Uplands in Wisconsin, and if you are luck enough to be able to find a wheel, buy it. Buy it and hoard it, but eat it quickly – it is already aged 60 days (very long for a soft cheese) and should be consumed in a few days. That probably won’t be a problem.
I was lucky enough to travel to the Uplands dairy to meet with Andy Hatch, the creator of Rush Creek.
Minneapolis Editorial Photography – Shepherd’s Way Cheese
For the beauty shot of cheese, I used a variety of lighting to document the texture and color of the blue cheese while highlighting creamy and approachable aspects of the cheese. I also balanced the editorial style of the cheese-making process with a variety of lighting techniques. The afternoon was spent in the pastures convincing sheep to be photographed, which is no small task, even with such pleasant herds.
Minnesota Pie on a Stick and other enjoyments
We created this reinterpretation of a church basement potluck with modern, elegant, local food for a local publication. Features natural light photography of each food item, clean composition for editorial use, playful use of color and composition.
Minneapolis Editorial Photography – University Avenue Food Editorial Photography MN
Favorites from a year of the Green Line Checklist – Editorial Photography MN
Over the course of 2016, I have joined a crew from Heavy Table to slowly eat at every independent restaurant on University Ave (and following the Green Line of the light rail) from St Paul through Dinkytown as part of the Green Line Checklist. We embarked on a similar quest last year to document the food along Central Avenue in Northeast Minneapolis, talking about the food, spaces, and people that we ran across.
I eat along with the other 3 in our standard group and a rotating panoply of guests, and I also supply photo documentation of the food and people we interact with along the way to compliment the outstanding illustrations of WACSO and the writing of the other two. As a project, it has taken over my date nights and free week nights for most of this year so far. We still have another few months until we are finished.
Minneapolis Editorial Photography- Styled Food Photography with Armato Design
Collaboration with Armato Design for design guide to Minneapolis bakeries. Convey a distinct “look” to each image in terms of lighting and processing. Bring a sense of natural ease to the posed elements.
Food Tour of Ann Arbor
Photos for Heavy Table – food tour of Ann Arbor for piece on dining in Ann Arbor. Based on a 3 day eating and drinking tour of Ann Arbor sponsored by Ann Arbor tourism board. Document restaurants and dinning experiences, editorial portraits of chefs & purveyors along with small interviews, seek out novel food experiences, creative angles and composition.
Minneapolis Editorial Photography – Norseman Distillery Cinemagraphs
I’ve been revisiting images I created for the Heavy Table online magazine over the years, like these for a piece on Norseman Distillery
Making animated gifs with a series of images (also called a live photo, or cinemagraph) is a lot of planning and production, but can have a surprising vibe for online use. Back in the day, this basement level industrial space was most of Norseman Distillery, and I had a blast finding the right compositions to make into cinemagraphs.
Minneapolis Editorial Photography – Febgiving
Find your greatest weakness – and know that it is inextricably related to your greatest strength. Persnickety is also detailed, know-it-all is also knowledgeable, Too-cold-to-be-outside has lead to many great gatherings.
And thus was born Febgiving – replacing the frigid cold that separates us into our individual homes with a reason to be together. We took the best holiday (Thanksgiving) and grafted into the worst of the midwest (February). Because the below zero weather may keep most us from biking, jogging, and picnicking, but it can’t keep us from gathering, from laughing, and from eating.
Every year we wonder if our friends will make the trek from other parts of the country (yes, like California, New York, Boston, DC, Nevada, Madison – places that are more commonly referred to as “destinations” than Minneapolis). And then inevitably our house is as full as our kitchen – we bake savory shortbread, we had a custom branding iron designed with a febgiving logo so we could brand a turkey, we roast vegetables and make mashed potatoes, and argue over how many desserts is “too many” (hint: we require at least 2 pies, everything else is negotiable)
This year felt especially joyous – we spent extra time styling and planning, we had 20 some out-of-towners, we had amazing food, we had so much fun.
Editorial Portraits – A meal with the Lt Governor of MN
These images originally appeared in an article on heavytable.com. I joined Heavy Table for a meal with Minnesota’s Lt Governor Tina Smith at Wise Acre eatery to discuss local foods, governments role, and local tastes. Images include on location plates of food, editorial portraits of Lt Governor Smith, and documentation of the discussion.
Editorial Portraits Andrew Zimmern
As part of a long form interview with Andrew Zimmern for Heavy Table, I spent a few hours in a conversation about food, community building, effective ways to change systems, and how to make food in a stadium. Basically, it was far reaching, but all based on the local presence of Andew Zimmern through his writing and the work he has been doing with stadium food service. Images were taken on location at Revival restaurant, and the interview was conducted over plates of fried chicken and greens.
Interview by author and musician Peter Sieve, location and food by Revival.
Minnesota Animal Farms
For the past 8 months I have been working on a series of farm photo stories. I’ve had the pleasure to document 6 Minnesota farms that have animals for meat or dairy, spending a half day at each, with the end goal of having 6 photo essays in Heavy Table’s Farms in the Lens series. Here are some of my personal favorites – some adorable animals, some happy accidents, some carefully crafted opportunities, and some photojournalism. Thank you to the farms and families that allowed me to bumble around on their land, pet their animals, ask city girl questions, and look for the moments of grace in such busy days. Special thanks to the folks are Redhead Creamery, who managed to have a cow give birth during my visit, and to the Sustainable Farming Association, who let me follow along on a farming 101 class. Featured: Paradox Farm, Wild Acres, Hidden Stream, Shepherds Way, Redhead Creamery, Twisted Suri Alpaca Ranch.
