Joanie Simon, Food Photographer and Founder of The Bite Shot

Instagram and Twitter: @thebiteshot

I chose this as my career because I have a constant need to be creating and have been food-obsessed since I was young. It’s how I bring my loves of art and food together. It also keeps me well-fed!

I hope my greatest contribution to the Valley culinary scene is encouragement. The world of food, especially for our amazing Valley chefs and restauranteurs, involves long hours, requires business savvy, creativity on-demand, and the ability to do inspired work even when resources are lacking. But, the work they do is vital to the culture of our state and brings hearts and hands closer together. I always strive to be supportive and encouraging and am honored to be a small part of it.

Taking the creative ideas in my head and seeing them come to life in an image is what I love most about what I do. Not spending all my money on new photography gear and props is the biggest challenge.

I separate myself and my brand from others by being fully transparent about myself and my work. Part of my business is teaching others who are learning food photography. I share everything about my process, the not-always-picture-perfect behind the scenes, and strive to make the elusive world of food photography more relatable. Visually, I love color, and in my personal work, bolder is always better.

I draw inspiration from the pages of the art history books from my undergraduate education at Arizona State University. I especially gravitated to Kandinsky, Matisse and Warhol and learning about color and light through their works still informs my approach to capturing images of food.  As far as photographers, I love following the work of Lindsay Adler and Steve Hansen, and I can always get lost in the work of Irving Penn.

My New Year’s resolution is to not work weekends. Building a business can turn into a 24/7 operation easily, but I want to savor the days while my boys are young and re-charge my creativity more often through intentional down time.

My greatest advice to share with young girls is, especially if you’re an artist, know that this is the best time in the history of the world to be a creative person. What makes you unique makes you especially valuable in today’s economy.