Here at WM, we pride ourselves on having what you’re looking for. No matter the creative need, we’ll either provide it for you or help you find it. With that said, we always love hearing stories of connections and collaborations between our very own photographers and crew members. Recently, New York-based food photographer Will Styer and New York-based food stylist Jen Beauchesne teamed up to produce some interesting images highlighting the importance of communication and food style. The concept involved food thrown onto a clear surface while Will shot from underneath.
Jen approached Will with the idea, and considering his tendency to use a harsher light and an emphasis of flaws and imperfections, he was happy to get a little messy. He also had fun shooting from a different and unusual perspective. Will voiced the importance of a food stylist and had all good things to say about Jen:
“Jen’s great. She does her job extremely well and has a real eye for detail. She has a great personality and is a lot of fun to hang out with on set. Having a good food stylist is extremely important. There’s no way to get a good photo if you’re shooting food that doesn’t look good.”
Although Will found it difficult shooting from the bottom up, he and Jen found that communication was key because they were looking at the food from two completely different perspectives.
Jen enjoyed getting creative and showing off her “messier” side as well:
I came to Will with this idea to shoot food smushed and from underneath because I thought his lighting and shooting style really matched the feeling I wanted for these images and couldn’t be happier with the end results. I wanted to show food in a different way, a way that we don’t normally see it. When we came up with ideas for food to shoot we had to think of foods that would look good from underneath and that would look good smushed. The food styling for this project was a little bit more difficult as I couldn’t really see what I was doing, but Will was very helpful crawling under the set to guide me in positioning of food. Will and I work really well together, we can easily bounce ideas off each other and it’s truly a pleasure working with him on set. I’m really excited to elaborate on the series and continue shooting with Will!