THE ART OF GROWING A FOOD PHOTOGRAPHER

VANESSA REES - VK REES PHOTOGRAPHY

What do you want to be? What’s next? Where are you headed? These are all questions lobbed at graduates as they face their futures. Regardless of their answers, it’s cool to to peek in on their early careers and see where they’ve taken things.

When photographer Vanessa Rees graduated from School of Visual Arts (SVA), she first took an office job just to pay the rent. She had no clue about where her photography might lead, so she let it lead her.

Rees was driven to build up her portfolio, so she began to shoot photos after she got home from work each night. What she didn’t learn about lighting in school, she taught herself out of necessity in these night shoots.

Now an award-winning food photographer, Rees is known, not only for her beautiful lighting, but also for her composition. She studied computer arts at SVA, bringing creative experimentation into her photography. She’s also inspired by graphic design. It’s evident in her overhead shots in particular.

What inspired her to shoot food? The same thing that motivated her to learn artificial lighting -- necessity. She worked with what was available to her at the time. After a long hard day at the office, she looked around her apartment for something worthy of a photo and found… food.

Conceptually, Rees’s inspiration comes from serendipitous arrangements of bits and pieces collected along the way. Rees collects everything from quotes to images to design elements. She translates their impressions into photography. Her series of paired “before shots” of ingredients and “after shots” of finished dishes shows how it all comes together beautifully in “Sweet Sugar, Sultry Spice: Exotic Flavors to Wake Up Your Baking,” a cookbook by Malika Ameen.

Rees operates VK Reese Photography Studio, based in New York City. Her commercial clients include Chipotle, Hennessy, Toyota, Vera Wang, Timex, Stolichnaya Vodka, Don Julio, MiO Water, Saveur, and Food & Wine.  

Rees won Saveur Magazine Best Photography Award as well asl Framed Awards Best Food Photography. She’s off to a brilliant start.

Read more about Beautiful Graduations in A Journey to Celebrate Graduations: Camino De Santiago, A Journey to Celebrate Graduations: Camino De Santiago, Tiny Lights Make Big Impact & Change Worlds, What’s Next for Arts & Design Grads? And Peak Journeys Yield Beautiful Lessons.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Mind/Body, Soul/Impact, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Arts/Design, and Place/Time, Daily Fix posts.

Want more stories like this? Sign up for our weekly BN Newsletter, Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr. Join our BeautifulNow Community and connect with the most beautiful things happening in the world right now!

Do you have amazing photos? Enter them in this week’s BN Photo Contest. We run new creative contest every week!

IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: by Vanessa Rees. “Still life.”
2. Image: by Vanessa Rees. “In Nature.”
3. Image: by Vanessa Rees. “Sweet Sugar, Sultry Spice: Exotic Flavors to Wake Up Your Baking.” Book by Malika Ameen. Courtesy of Roost Books.
4. Image: by Vanessa Rees. “Sweet Sugar, Sultry Spice: Exotic Flavors to Wake Up Your Baking.” Book by Malika Ameen. Courtesy of Roost Books.
5. Image: by Vanessa Rees. “Sweet Sugar, Sultry Spice: Exotic Flavors to Wake Up Your Baking.” Book by Malika Ameen. Courtesy of Roost Books.
6. Image: by Vanessa Rees. “Hunan Delight.”
7. Image: by Vanessa Rees. “Spring Tea.”
8. Image: by Vanessa Rees. “Hendricks Gin.”
9. Image: by Vanessa Rees. “Tomato Soup.”