Great Food Photos: Tomo Kohsaka

Going through Tomo Kohsaka's photos is making me daydream about spending my summer days in Japan. There's a sense of calm with a touch of whimsiness to her photos. I can imagine she'd be a fun person to hang out with. And if you can read Japanese, I suggest you check out her blog as well. Thanks to Tara O'Brady of seven spoons for letting me know about Tomo Kohsaka's work.

Q. Can you tell me what you’re trying to capture when you take your food photos? A. I am trying to capture a scene that makes someone (and me) feel comfortable. I would like the viewer to feel they want to enter that scene.

Q. What do you like about photography? A. I can express myself without words using photography.

Q. What inspires you? A. I feel inspired by the things I yearn for. For example, the cool scene in a movie, an article in a magazine or something I desire at that time.

Q. Any food photography heroes? If not any photography heroes? A. Yoshihiko Ueda and Diane Arbus

Q. Best meal so far in 2012? A. In Tokyo, Japan we have very hot summers and cold winters. We have a short period before summer which is perfect BBQ weather.

My best meal so far in 2012 was a BBQ at my home with my family and friends. We enjoyed a lot of delicious food and laughs together.

All photos courtesy of Tomo Kohsaka.

Great Food Photos: Anna Williams

This is getting crazy. Why crazy? Well how often do you get to interview photographers that you look up to? I actually get nervous emailing photographers that I admire. A lot of "what ifs" come to my mind. So you know how excited I was when Anna Williams said yes to letting me interview her. Her use of light and shadows is so amazing. Also be sure to check out her personal photography project, "The Voracity" where she explores hunger, consumption and beauty.

Q. Can you tell me what you’re trying to capture when you take your food photos? A. When I photograph food I always think about how best to express the lusciousness of food. Good food wants to be eaten - I feel you can always find beauty in that idea. There is a real beauty in all food. Instead of just taking a picture of what is there on the plate I try to capture something luminous in the whole scene. You have to really feel into it, it isn't something that comes from the technical side of things.

Q. What inspires you? A. Doing personal work really inspires me because it comes from something within me - my own vision that just kind of comes out. It always feels like recharging the batteries. Also, I'm always inspired by the beauty in even the most mundane things - in the commercial world this is always what you have to do. And it isn't something you can fake - sometimes it takes some searching but there is always a beautiful moment that can be captured. My kids are a great source of inspiration - the way they see the world and how much energy they have for everything. It has given me so much energy just to be around them, it is infectious! Finally - I'm really inspired by the creative people who are working so hard every day. Stylists are so important in this industry and the way they find the most amazing things and how hard they have to work on a shoot, I really have so much appreciation for what they do.

Q. What made you decide to go to school for photography? A. I didn't really go to school for photography - what drew me to that major was that first photo class where I saw how real moments could be captured onto a negative, and that instant in the developer tray when the image emerges onto the paper. The first time you see that, it is magic. After that I was hooked. When I moved to NYC I converted my tiny bathroom into a darkroom, just so I could see those images come up on the paper over and over. I was just back in my college town and visited my professor Pradip Malde - he has 2 darkrooms and his kids are even printing! That is so amazing - nothing will ever replace that first moment you see an image come into being. It is like being a kid all over again.

Q. How has the change in photography (from film to digital, from the dark room to the computer, from only a few to pretty much everyone owning their own dslr now) changed the way you see photography or changed the way you see things through the viewfinder? A. I don't think it has really changed the way I see things - the camera doesn't matter very much. Light is the same now as it was before. Digital has made things a lot easier for me to shoot more and more for myself, which has become so important. So in a sense it has helped me get in touch more with my own vision. One thing that has changed so much is on shoots - the whole team gets to see the pictures come up on the screen, and make suggestions about composition. The pictures are so much more a collaborative effort than they used to be. And I think that has made me a much better photographer. I see more and more what it is that I want each photo to have, what it is that I can capture that is different than how someone else would see it.

Q. Any food photography heroes? If not any photography heroes? A. Irving Penn has always been an inspiration for me. He was an all-around photographer and could shoot any subject and it would be beautiful, that is something I always strive for. His food images were so original and those same compositions and ideas are still being recycled today. Some of my contemporaries are doing amazing work, too. I really look up to Gentl + Hyers, having assisted them when I first got started, and now Andrea is consistently making beautiful work on her blog Hungry Ghost. They helped so many of their assistants start careers and I hope I can do the same for my own assistants! I also feel like Marcus Nilsson has really changed food photography to make it more messy and real. It was a subtle shift but he definitely changed the way people shoot. Also Con Poulos makes great pictures, and he is such a nice guy. His photos always his own touch. There are so many people doing great work!

Q. Best meal so far in 2012? A. We've had a few great ones - I ate at a couple amazing restaurants in South Beach, OLA and the Dining Room. Chef Horacio Rivadero runs those restaurants and they're both so different but the meals were exquisite! I also love the meals we have at home when the kids are so hungry and we all eat and are so quiet because the food is so good. When the kids aren't able to talk at the table you know the food is simple and amazing. And there's that pause at the end where everyone kind of looks around like 'what just happened?' I love that.

All photos courtesy of Anna Williams from her photography project, "The Voracity."

Great Food Photos: Greg DuPree

We're excited to introduce everyone to a very talented photographer residing in Atlanta, Georgia, Greg DuPree. Going through his website, you're instantly strike by how vibrant his photos are (also instantly want to munch on those waffle fries and dim sum). Check out our interview with Greg after the jump. Find out what made him decide to become a photographer and what inspires him as an artist.

Q. Can you tell me what you're trying to capture when you take your photos? I just want to create images that speak to SOMEONE. Just like any art-form not everyone is going to like your style, subject matter ect, but I am always trying to convey a sense of place and emote a response weather it be a portrait of a chef or farmer or still life of ingredients. It could be the symmetrical simplicity or the controlled chaos that draws you in...the emotional expression in a portrait or the imperfections in the food styling that make it feel real and inviting....the emptiness of the negative space or the deepness of the shadows that bring up memories of a particular time in the season. If I can make someone stare at my images in a gallery or stop on a page in a magazine then I think I've accomplished what I've intended to.

Q. What made you decide to become a photographer? It sort of came along with a natural progression. As a kid, I had a love for Comic books...I think my mom bought one for me just about every time we went out. I was constantly drawing the characters thinking one day thats what I'd be was an illustrator. Once my teachers found out I could draw I became the one allowed to get out of class early to work on a mural, school t-shirt design, ect. From High School into my early college years my appreciation for art history and theory helped refine my painting skills. My influence and style quickly changed from early realism to a very Robert Rauschenberg expressionistic, pop art feeling. It was then I learned about combine painting and began incorporating illustrations and photographs into the pieces. I started realizing the similarities between painting and photography using the same elements of color and tone, light and composition. There was something about developing your own film and printing your own images that each piece started becoming more photo and less painting.

Q. What inspires you? Inspiration can come from anything, travel, history, design, family, movies, ect. I'll sometimes find myself missing a movie plot all together because I'm fixated on the cinematography or the way a scene is lit and trying to figure out how I can recreate that northern winter light or color temperature in a dark studio. I enjoy surrounding myself with inspiring people...artisans or individuals that have taken there craft or passion, fought through the hardship and enjoy doing what it is they are doing.....while making a living at it.

Q. Any food photography heroes? If not any photography heroes? I keep up with and follow many types of photographers.....all of which are very different and many not very well known. But all have a vision that I can appreciate. As far as food photographers...I am often finding myself on the websites of Mikkel Vang and John Cullen. Each have a beautiful way of telling a story. Rene Riis also has a still life approach that I identify with. I've always been a fan of portrait photographers Mark Seliger and Matthew Rolston and what artist isn't inspired by Gregory Crewdson?

Q. Best meal so far in 2012? Atlanta is quickly becoming more and more of a foodie city. As many great restaurants as there are in the south, still without fail my favorite place to go is a local spot right around the corner from me called Muss & Turners. My wife and I frequent there almost weekly....so much so we attended a charity auction and the main thing we were relentless in bidding on was the chefs table at Muss & Turners. Although there were eight delicious courses throughout the night one thing stands out..the pork belly with truffle grits. An extremely southern dish done in a very refined way. We instantly befriended exec chef David Sturgis when he sat with us and asked how we felt about "brinner". He wanted to cook completely off the menu and serve what he would want for his last meal.....and it did not disappoint.

All photos courtesy of Greg DuPree

Great Food Photos: Julie Marie Craig

It's always exciting for me to read blogs by chefs or bakers. I get a glimpse of their lives working in restaurants, kitchens, and bakeries. And that's one of the reason why I do what I do as a photographer. The food may be important but what's more important and interesting are the people behind the food. Please meet Julie Marie Craig, a professional baker and photographer from Northern California. Not only do you get to see amazing photos but also recipes and stories from her life.

Q. Can you tell me what you’re trying to capture when you take your food photos? I'm trying to capture that moment when some type of food looks really amazing but not too amazing where you wouldn't want to eat it. I like a bit of mess, imperfections in my photos. I learned photography on film cameras so with that, you learn to love the 'happy accidents' that always arise. I try to keep that up when I now have had to switch over to the more practical digital. Essentially, I'm just trying to recreate what I see in my head to something tangible, a photo. I generally know exactly how I want to photograph something before I do it. I don't do a lot of planning or make sketches of how the photo should look. I just go with that gut reaction and that mental image that instantly comes to me.

Q. What inspires you? Everything, I know that sounds cliche but there really isn't one thing. Looking at magazines with amazing photography, movies, tv shows, farmers markets, props, light, nature, they all can lead me in different ways to having that thought, 'oh I need to take 'this' photo now!' One ingredient such as these amazing, beautifully colored eggs are my new inspiration. They are naturally different shades of pastels, with spots and bumps. I'm in love with them. I want to do a massive series of photos just of these eggs.

Q. Do you find any similarities between baking and photography? I think when you have a passion for both there are a lot of similarities. When you are baking something you go through many steps to get the final result. It's the same thing with photography. You can't just take a photo and that's it. There is a lot of prep work, set up, post processing. It's all a process. While photos don't have the same, 'Put these exact things together, in these exact amount every time and you will get the same thing' result. So I guess where that thought is going is that, photography is more like cooking, where you can throw things in and it's not as scientific.

Q. What is photography to you? Photography is capturing a fleeting moment in time, either on a precious negative or on a digital file. Finding the perfect light, setting, props, composition that all work in unison to create an image that you can never again. Photography is something I really love. When I haven't taken photos for a week, I get a physical urging to take some. It's awkward for me not to take photos.

Q. Any food photography heroes? If not any photography heroes? Too many to count. Katie Quinn Davies can do no wrong. I am always in love with all her photos and she's the reason I started food photography. Even some of her earliest images on her site still inspire my photos now. Andrea Gentl, who is the queen of dark photos. There are so many more, but those are my tops as of the moment. As for none food photographers, one of my old photo teachers, Ron Zack for the passion he had and made me had. He pushed us in class and made sure we cared about what we were doing.

Q. Best meal so far in 2012? Hopefully the best is yet to come, I have had good meals that included homemade butter, cheese & bread. But no meal that comes to mind where I think, 'That was amazing' and still find myself craving it to this day. Unless you are counting a recent visit to Cowgirl Creamery in the Ferry Building. Everything was marvelous and I have been known to consider cheese a meal.

All photos courtesy of Julie Marie Craig from Always With Butter