Louisville Vegan Jerky Co. is one of the coolest companies you’ll find. And when you browse their charmingly bold website, you can’t help but feel like if you buy their jerky, you can be cool, too. Louisville, Kentucky-based photographer Jessica Ebelhar was the obvious choice when the novel company needed to update their photography.
Louisville Vegan Jerky Company is an extremely rad vegan foods company, and I’m a huge fan of their products. They’re also friends of mine, so it was a ton of fun to work on from start to finish.
The company began in 2012 when Stanley Chase III overbaked his soy protein “by mistake.” Then, on purpose, he did it a million more times and developed his own vegan jerky company, something vegans and vegetarians everywhere never knew they needed.
They produce artisanal jerky and surprising flavor combinations and populate their website with witty one-liners that make you think hanging out with them chewing on some jerky would be one of the major highlights of your life. Jessica has a similar vibe and produces beautiful, quirky, and fresh photographs that are fascinating to behold.
Jessica has been an editorial and commercial photographer for a while now, but she specializes in product, food and beverage, and portraiture work for forward-thinking brands and publications.
She has her own studio in Louisville equipped with a full kitchen and prop collection ideal for remote work, which is how she did this shoot. They had about two shoot days in her studio, and Jessica wore all of the hats. She handled the art direction and prop styling as well as the photography.
I dedicated a lot of time to developing the shot concepts and props well ahead of time, so it went as planned by the time we got to the actual shoot.
Well, as much as it could. The shots of the jerky flying out of the bag were a little unpredictable.
My favorite part of the actual shoot was making the images of the jerky flying out of the bag. I devised a way to propel the jerky pieces with the help of my assistant, and because it was an unscientific approach, we ended up with a few funny outtakes.
As we’ve covered before, Jessica’s style is apparent in this shoot. The photos feel almost retro combined with a modern polish and vibrancy that intrigues the viewer and somehow leaves them wanting more.
It was one of the most fun shoots of the season for sure, but it’s always fun to see ideas come to life from ideation to execution. The Louisville Vegan Jerky Co. was awesome to work with, and they were super happy with the results.
Credits:
Photography Assistant: Chris Bodden
See more of Jessica’s work at jessicaebelhar.com.
Check out our other great photographers on our Find Photographers page!