Persian Food Photography

Photography has been a constant in my life since elementary school when I received my first camera, a Kodak Instamatic. Photography turned into a serious pursuit during high school with the acquisition of a Canon FTB 35mm SLR and a Yashica medium format DLR. Wanting to improve my skills, I took the opportunity to take photography courses offered during my undergraduate engineering studies at the George Washington University. This expanded skill set landed me the role of photographer for the GWU student newspaper, The Hatchet, and later, the prestigious position of photography editor for the GWU yearbook, The Cherry Tree.

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My culinary journey, from articles and recipes to my planned cookery book, has been intermixed with food photography, and not without reason. Over the past several years, as I have systematically been testing and finalizing recipes in my home kitchen, I have simultaneously been capturing potential photographs for my envisioned cookery book. By using such a "just-in-time" approach, a much larger collection of candidate photographs is created than would be possible with traditional staged photo shoots. This approach also allows me to capture the beauty and the utility of short-lived and hard to find seasonal ingredients, so crucial to Persian cookery. Most importantly, my photography adheres to the philosophy of showcasing the final dish most authentically, as prepared by a traditional Persian home cooks without unnecessary styling, just pure culinary heritage.

 

Below you will find a small sampling of my Persian food photographs.