I’ve previously shown images of my work with Rosevale, at the Civilian Hotel, but I was also hired to shoot some dishes that the chef was experimenting with using for their opening. Here are some images of those plates.
For The Infatuation, I photographed 53, a gorgeous midtown Chinese restaurant with a stunning interior and beautiful shared plate dishes.
Eater NY did a multi-faceted piece on how TikTok effects the restaurant industry and one of the restaurants featured, was Brooklyn’s Lucia Pizza. The assignment included shooting, not only the food but the kitchen process, and most importantly the owner’s relationship with TikTok and his use of it in the kitchen.
As part of Eater’s Best New Restaurants of 2022, I photographed Department of Culture, a Nigerian restaurant in Bed-Stuy. Although the staff was super helpful, the shoot was quite difficult as the space is quite small and the shoot happened during service. I was forced to rely on a single light source without any diffusion and my abilities to position the food and lighting where I could shoot both still life and the atmosphere (real life) in quick succession.
These are some interior/exterior photos of the opening of the massive Time’s Square location of candy-chain IT’SUGAR.
Rosevale is a restaurant at the Civilian Hotel in Times Square and I have previously shared some beverage photos from their cocktail menu but I also did a shoot for them in their kitchen, as they were first opening up and testing dish ideas. It’s very tricky to shoot in a kitchen because, as a photographer, you’re always in someone’s way but luckily the kitchen had not yet fully been open and there was just the chef and sous-chef in a very large space, which gave me free reign and the opportunity to take these below photos.
Not far from the water, in the west 40s is Cantina Rooftop. A festive Mexican restaurant and canteen which cooks up almost any Mexican classic you could consider. Not only do they have tacos but they have “The Big Ass Taco,” which lives up to its name. Check out some images below, including one very large taco.
No surprise to anyone that the pandemic has wreaked havoc on the global population as so much on local businesses. From hole-in-the-walls to restaurant palaces like Chop House, Covid delayed constructions, openings and even the existence of restaurants. At the time of this writing, Chop House has yet to open and completed construction in Dec of 2020. Hopefully it will see a new life as the interiors are strikingly beautiful.
In one of my more unique assignments, Eater NY hired me to shoot the barefoot contessa herself, Ina Garten, as she dined with friends at Soho’s La Mercerie. I was just a fly on the wall as she and her trio of dining compatriots sampled food, chatted with the chef, and had a good laugh. As I was instructed to be as discreet as possible, I was forced to rely strictly on natural light so you can bet I made sure Ina sat right across from the largest window possible. Here are some samples from the shoot.
The third element of this shoot, which I have showcased in two other entries was to capture the space and atmosphere. The team at Bagatelle was very specific about the style and tone of the images, and, as you can see, they all carry a very specific style that is a departure from how I usually shoot.
Down the steps of Midtown staple, Valerie, you’ll find a new, quite large speakeasy known as Madame George. Despite the lack of natural light, the space feels verdant and open despite its subterranean position.
Tomaresca, an Italian wine distributor, brought the flavors and food of Puglia to Eataly for a private dinner which I photographed. In addition to a spread of appetizers, the event included a live cooking demonstration of a few menu items which were then served to the intimate group of guests who, while enjoying the food, learned about the riches of Puglia while savoring some delicious wine pairings.
The Standard Grill, the restaurant at The Standard Highline hotel, has a lovely bar with some elevated bar snacks. In addition to oysters, there are fried chicken sliders, tacos and other bites one might want to accompany a beer or martini. For this shoot, I really wanted to push the light through the drinks to assert their presence on the table so that they would be accompanying the food, as they are usually paired to do. This job was commissioned by The Standard Hotel.
CxRA specializes in catering to some of New York’s biggest and most well-known venues and they also happen to possess a fabulous stylist in their marketing department. Combined with a prop house, the stylist provides fantastic ideas and wonderful ways of giving life to these very small bites. It really makes my job easier and my photographs more vivid and beautiful with the help of a stylist.
Eater NY brought me on to photograph the opening of Atlanta-based chain Slutty Vegan in Brooklyn and it was an unexpectedly raucous block party. The line for the vegan cheeseburger chain ran around the block and, due to a lot of other press photographers, it was quite a fight to get shots of the burgers themselves. I snuck into the tiny, chair-less restaurant, and into the kitchen with a handheld light to get some shots but we were lucky enough to get a few burgers to shoot outside the restaurant.
The Rosevale is a restaurant opening at the Civilian Hotel in Times Square and I was tasked to photograph their cocktails but also some process shots of their cocktails in action. The Carver Road Hospitality-led beverage director, dressed to the nines, and provided a great background for these shots.
In a previous post I had mentioned that I was hired to photograph for the Bagatelle restaurant group at their pop-up space in Soho’s La Duree. Here are some of the food photos from the shoot.
Knappogue Castle Whiskey is an Irish spirit company with which I have been fortunate to do a good amount of work, cataloguing some local mixologists creating cocktails with Knappogue in bars around the city. My relationship with them started at a pop-up they were doing in the financial district at an Irish pub in which they were producing cocktails with their whiskey and pairing dishes of Irish cuisine. Here are some samples from that shoot.
In a previous project, I showcased some catering spreads from Rhubarb but they also had me shoot passing trays of their delicious little canapes. Here are some samples.
Granita Grille is a famliy owned and operated Italian bistro in Westwood, NJ. They were in need of a marketing facelift so they hired me to shoot their menu, a few times. They really liked the idea of showing human elements in the shots so you’ll see that in this selection from the shoot.
