APA Awards 2016, First Place – Emerging
Five months ago I started a new role as a Studio Manager with a commercial photography studio in San Francisco that, as part of its compensation arrangement, provides use of the studio for personal shoots. Given that we were seriously considering the prospect of remodeling our home to build a studio space, I saw this opportunity as fortuitous and immediately started planning test shoots with local stylists to fully leverage this benefit.
I connected with Zoe Armbruster, an up-and-coming local food stylist on these series of images focusing on edibles as beauty products. It’s a step outside the traditional ‘food photography’ paradigm by exploring the subject in a different application and embarking on this tangent proved inspirational in freeing me up to present the subject in a whole new way. So it was absolutely thrilling to learn that one of the images we created has won First Place in the 2016 APA Awards, in the Emerging/Student Photographer category. The APA is a leading national organization for professional photographers, assistants and other visual artists and their annual awards feature some of the best imagery in the business. To say that I’m exhilarated by this development would be an understatement. It’s a major confidence booster to be recognized and an important milestone in this career that is really more like a marathon than a sprint. The journey is just starting and I can’t wait to see where this leads.
You can read more about the selection process for these awards here and check out the full gallery of winning images on the APA site.
For more images from this Edible Beauty series, head over to this gallery.
