I love going to a spa. At home, when I travel, anytime. Which is why I was very excited to photograph SoJo Spa Club for The Infatuation's Winter 25 list. Although I usually don’t eat there when I visit they have a pretty full menu that pairs nicely with a cold plunge.
Bar Moga, located on Houston St is a 1920’s style cocktail bar with a bevy of options to drink and eat. The Infatuation was reviewing the spot so I was asked to shoot some photos, a handful of which are below.
Certain Visa credit card holders won a contest that would include a trip to NYC and a myriad of treats, including an in-kitchen demonstration and meal prepared for and served by celebrity chef Bobby Flay. Here are some images from the evening.
Meju is a fine dining, set-menu restaurant in the back of a lovely Korean market in Long Island City. The Infatuation was in need of some photos to accompany their review, and so they called upon yours truly to do so. When I light food, I try to match the mood of the space and the vibe. As Meju is an upscale one-seating-per-evening speakeasy playing Sinatra, it gave off the vibe of a single softbox sort of aesthetic, which you can view below.
Back in October, Nike hosted the World Basketball Festival at Lincoln Center, home to Tatiana, a restaurant named the best in NYC in 2023 by the New York Times. Kwame Onwuachi, the restaurant’s chef and proprietor teamed with catering masters CxRA to provide a dinner for the opening of the festival with the lovely backdrop of the Lincoln Center plaza.
Speigelworld has produced some modern adult-driven cabaret/circus-style performances in Las Vegas and, somewhat, recently opened a location in Atlantic City, with their adjacent restaurant, Superfrico. Although there is also a Superfrico in Las Vegas, the menus varies slightly and the team was in need of photography of the dishes and the spaces below.
Having worked with Iichiko before, it’s quite clear they are strategic with who they partner, and it would make sense for them to work with Martiny’s, a cozy yet hip Japanese cocktail bar on Irving Place. Mixologist Takuma Watanabe produced a gorgeous and green cocktail for the brand which you can view below.
As Chase was a sponsor of last year’s US Open, so too did Chase-owned The Infatuation have a hand in the event, which meant a ton of exciting and new food. As part of the Infatuation’s list of Where to Eat at The US Open, I photographed dishes from the various vendors at the “Flavors of the Open” event, some of which were household NYC names, while others were compact versions of high-profile restaurants.
As Chase Bank owns The Infatuation, it would make sense why the two host so many events together, including this Pride NYC 2023 event at The Bowery Hotel, which included a 10 ft mezze table and some colorful treats and guests.
Premium small-batch rum manufacturer Don Papa needed some help showing off its cocktails and ambassadors so we took to Williamsburg mediterranean hideaway Fandi Mata which provides an innately tropical vibe to the images.
Gilligan’s is an outdoor oasis of a bar/restaurant at the Soho Grand Hotel. The client wanted their images to have a softness to them so, against my normal routine (and preferences), we shot only using natural light which did create a certain aesthetic that I’m happy to produce, but not the biggest fan of. It worked for the client, so it worked for me.
As part of a collaboration between Chase Sapphire and The Infatuation, the later has created the Hit List Dinner series hosting dinners at restaurants around the country, including the somewhat new Principe nyc, which is located in the former National Geographic museum in Soho. The space was completely revamped to host two floors of diing.
Cocktail Kingdom produces tools for bartenders that are used widely in NYC and all around the country. They also happen to own a few bars in the city where we shot some of their products in action.
The tequila brand, Mijenta, has been teaming up with bars and restaurants to spread awareness of their product and inspire tequila-forward cocktails. Partnering with chic-Hudson Yards adjacent ZouZou’s, the two entities hosted a party that included an ice luge and narcotic-like dealings of caviar. View the video below.
Food deliver service ChowNow has partnered with NYC staple Smorgasburg to provide secret menu items from each of their vendors. As someone who lives not far from Smorgasburg, it was a nice feather in my cap to be asked to shoot something I’ve known and attended for years (with a quick commute to boot!).
Sundaes Best is a Korea Town ice cream fixture from the owners of Baek Jeong KBBQ . It features diverse flavors, some of which are Korean, and a cheery, pink interior. This shoot was a little difficult since the ice cream containers were covered with a glass exterior, until I realized we could open the front windows and sneak the camera into the opening. Glass and flash are not a great photographic combination!
I’ve rarely worked with stylists because most often I work with restaurants where the chefs or the marketing contacts are the ones styling the foods. I was lucky enough to work with the super talented Judy Kim who elevated the red-sauce food of Tony’s DiNapoli and truly elevated my photography. I almost feel like I didn’t even take these photos because Judy was the true artist who crafted such beautiful scenes below.
The Japanese Sake and Shochu Makers Association has been throwing a cocktail making competition each year, for the last few years, and I was hired to create a video of the event. Five contestants from around the country were flown in to produce their best cocktail featuring a Shochu and the winner received a free trip to Japan.
MareLuna is a multi-location restaurant specializing in Italian/Mediterranean cuisine. At the time of writing this, social media is the fulcrum of much of the content created for restaurants and, as video is on the rise, clients like MareLuna try to create engaging content with these little stop motion animations that I created from a series of photos. You can view more in the motion page of this site.
I’ve done some work in the past with Chambord , including their collaboration with The Standard Highline hotel but I was asked to highlight their ambassador program, as well as their push for low ABV cocktails that can be made with Chambord which only has a 16% ABV. Also, (some BTS!), the table top used in most of these images was actually a cutting board!
