A new look website - Heres a little about me
Hello! For those of you who don’t know me i’m Ryan, I’m a Leeds based Food Stylist/Home Economist/Photographer/Foodie. Welcome to the New Look Website 2.0, it’s been a long time in the making - the first online portfolio I created was looking tired, out of date and in dire need of a freshen up with more recent imagery.
My Journey
I’ve been passionate about food since as long as I can remember, It was no surprise to anyone when I left school to pursue a career in the industry. Armed with my pristine chef whites and a new knife roll I enrolled on a professional cookery course, along with washing pots and peeling spuds in local restaurants on evening and weekends - I couldn’t get enough. My career in the commercial food industry quickly spanned 10 years as I worked my way up through the ranks, partly due to my obsessive need for knowledge, I have to know everything I can as quickly as I can! So much so that I landed my first Head Chef job at 21.
Creating these daily culinary creations I found the desire to document what I made, an amateur armed with my first DSLR my initial images just couldn’t do the food justice. I simply had to know more! I took a much needed break from the cheffing world and enrolled on a Photography BA course at the University of Huddersfield. It was here I really fell in love with Photography and the Industry, hands down one of the best decisions I have ever made. I wasn’t done with food by any means, I used my culinary skills throughout the course along side my newly learned studio skills. I’ll dig out my final year project for my next post.
Whilst studying as part of professional practice I reached out to a number of Food Photographers at the top of their game in the North and began assisting part time. Having the opportunity to see how commercial food images were made first hand was absolutely invaluable. I loved being on set, so whatever the role or opportunity I jumped at it. Being able to do what you love and you get paid - its the dream right?
Six years years down the line I have been lucky enough to forge a career in a saturated industry, now armed with a comprehensive content creation skill set and 15 years experience working with food.