Alex Slyadnev

I am a commercial food and product photographer in New York. I have worked as a photographer for twenty years, starting in advertising with fashion and people, and food became the center of my work after a restaurant job came back looking worse than I wanted. I hired a chef, bought a simple electric stove for the studio and spent six months photographing nothing but food until the results were right.

Since then work has taken me to Hong Kong, Singapore, Milan, Barcelona and Istanbul. I have photographed for Michelin-starred kitchens, for spirits and cookware brands, and I have worked for Larousse Gastronomique. Six of my cookbooks are published and available on Amazon, with a seventh on the way, and The New York Times, Forbes and Saveurs have written about my work.

How I run a shoot

Before a restaurant shoot I read its reviews and Instagram, and when I can I spend an hour in the room watching who the guests are. The visual concept comes from those people. My job is to anticipate what the guest expects from a dish and to meet that expectation.

On the day, every frame goes onto the screen while the dish is still on the table, and the person who decides approves it there. In twenty years of working this way no client has asked me for a reshoot. I set the light on an empty plate before the hot dish arrives, which is how a kitchen and I once photographed 106 dishes in a single day.

The team behind the shoot

I work with a designer, a developer, a retoucher and a video editor. That is why a shoot can end as a printed menu, an online menu that takes orders, an Amazon listing or a book.

Kitchens and brands

Kitchens I have photographed for include Yuu, Sushi Amane and Icca in New York, ABaC, Hisop and Caelis in Barcelona, Horváth and Nobelhart & Schmutzig in Berlin, and 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana, Sushi Shikon, Bo Innovation and Tosca in Hong Kong. Brands include Jack Daniel's, The Singleton, Big Green Egg, Broil King and BergHoff.

The tiramisu

I make tiramisu from the family recipe of a chef with a Michelin star. It took three days and a good deal of whisky to get it out of him, and it is still the dessert my friends ask for.

Written about my work

Press

The New York Times Forbes Saveurs

Tell me about the project

Write a few words about the job, and I'll reply with a plan and a written estimate within 24 hours.

alex@slyadnev.com +1-646-991-7626

or message me directly