Interview
It's A Woman's World Interview Photographer Food Photographer

It's A Woman's World: Food Photographer Lisa Nichols

Andrew Dominick

Connecticut-based food photographer Lisa Nichols is someone who I admittedly fanboy over.

And I’m sure you have, too.

That restaurant you frequent, that chef you follow on social media, the “Food” section of that local lifestyle magazine you’re reading, there’s a good chance the vivid, detailed visuals you’re “oohing” and “aahhing” over were shot by Lisa and her photo company, Bread & Beast.

Lisa has personally shot photos for several of my articles and blurbs over the years, so to say I’m stoked to get to know her a little more in this Q&A is an understatement.

Let’s get the scoop on how she got into photography, how she ended up in the food space, and because she’s behind the scenes in restaurants all the time, what are some of her favorite CT bites are.

Take us back before photography. What were you doing? (Toss some of your story in here, too, like where’d you grow up, what brought you to CT)

I was born in Barre, Vermont, but grew up in East Brookfield, Vermont, which is almost smack in the middle of the state. My father was from there, and when he and my mom met, and got married, that was where they settled. It was very rural and picturesque. It was an amazing place to grow up as a free-range ’70s kid, roaming the fields and mountains with friends, playing in barns and running the fields until the sun went down and it was time to head home. 

In 1980, my parents separated, and then we suffered a house fire; both events shifted our lives in a different direction, my mother choosing to return to Middletown, CT, where she grew up.

 

With anything creative, it always begins as a passion and a hobby. How did you first get bit by the photography bug?

This is going to sound strange, but I knew I wanted to be a photographer before I even touched a camera. I would often talk about my desire, and one Christmas, my Uncle Joe gave me a Nikon point-and-shoot, which was my first camera ever. I don’t think I was aware of what drew me to photography specifically, but I knew it was what I wanted to do.

When I was accepted to the Maine College of Art (formerly Portland School of Art) in Portland, Maine, in 1986, I intended to study photography, but I didn’t yet own a DSLR, and my single mom wasn’t able to buy me one at the time. So, for a studio elective I took ceramics along with my foundation courses freshman year. The following year, my mom bought me a Pentax K1000, my first official camera that gave me total creative control.

 

What brought you to the realization that you could make this a career? Take us on that journey. And why food photography?

Despite having a BFA in photography, when I graduated and moved back home, I really had no idea what to do with it. When I was studying, I wanted to be a documentary/street photographer. If I looked back at my college work, I have one image of food, and that was of some fish in a display at the grocery store seafood case. It wasn’t my main subject back then by far.

When I came back, the only photo-related job I could find was working at a photo lab that offered one-hour film developing and had a portrait studio for shooting pictures of families. And I didn’t take the family portraits; I developed the film and waited on customers. I worked there for seven years until I got married in 1997.

After having my daughter, Sarah, in 1998, I fell into a job working in the public schools in Middletown in their autism program. Photography was focused on my children and documenting their babyhood, milestones, and family goings-on. I loved all that, but did not consider anything I did as building a photography career. I had no idea how to even start.

I worked in the school system for almost 10 years, and in the beginning (and for a good chunk of my time there) I loved it. I worked closely with children with autism and their families. The schedule matched my children's school schedule, and after having my son Seth in 2000, it was a good match. But by 2006, I was getting pretty burned out and was not loving it anymore. Finally, in 2008, we had a new director come in, and she eliminated our department and demoted those of us in the program. It was a sign and an opportunity for me to move on, and I took it.

I wasn’t sure how to make a career as a photographer and decided to explore graphic design, which I also had an interest in. I figured that was a way to get a job in a creative field that seemed more plausible.

Fast forward to 2015. I took a job working at a company that made PPE equipment. Think face masks and latex gloves. Sexy stuff. I was hired as a junior designer to tackle a huge package design project along with the lead designer. During this time, I had moved to New Haven, divorced and remarried (but that’s another story—oy vey).

The pull of photography was strongly rising again in me, and I was trying to figure it out. I always took photos of things that interested me, and I was that person who always had a camera at family gatherings and events. People knew I was a photographer at my core.

Rolling back a little and exploring the connection to food. When I was a child in Vermont, my parents planted a huge garden on our one-acre property. Back then, it seemed absolutely massive to me, taking up the back third of our property. My father grew up on a farm, and I would ask him over and over to tell me stories about his two draft horses, Jim and Joe. My mom never gardened growing up, as far as I knew, but she got the bug and worked side-by-side with my father, year after year.

They planted everything. Lettuces, corn, beans, cabbage, carrots, beets, herbs, kohlrabi (who planted kohlrabi back then? I didn't know what that was and did not like it at all. My sister loves it to this day). My older brother and younger sister and I were required to help in the garden, pulling weeds and harvesting. One summer Mom even sectioned off a small corner of the garden for us to have our very own garden. I remember loving that.

Mom really took to our small homesteading effort, and we added chickens and some cattle to the effort. She was a stay-at-home mom back then and spent her days feeding us with homemade bread, granola, and preserves she would make. She pickled, preserved, and froze the produce from the garden yearly. We ate well and were very healthy back then. I have many, many memories of her in the kitchen, hard at work, effortlessly, it seemed, while we milled around her ankles, playing with measuring spoons and pots and pans to keep us entertained and mostly out of the way. My parents were still together then, and I was home with friends and family around us all. We were safe and happy and intact. I think those food memories, coupled with that time, are deeply imprinted on me and draw me to food as a conduit for reliving that time.

As for making a career of this, I had no idea where to even start. I just knew I had a deep curiosity, drive, and a desire to do this. That was and is my motivation every day to keep going. And I’m not done yet. I’m in the process of opening my own food photography-centered studio in Manchester.  I can’t wait.

 

Describe your style and tell us what your business name, Bread & Beast, means.

The name Bread & Beast came about after a day of brainstorming on how I could create a name that said food photography is my specialty, and that was also memorable and unique. I was talking to my sister on the phone about this when it popped into my head. When I searched the name to see if it already existed, the only result I got was a restaurant with the same name in Japan. I liked that connection, and it just stuck with me. That restaurant has since closed, so as far as I know, I’m the only Bread & Beast out there now. Interestingly enough, I did have one person if my name meant I photographed pets and food. No, I don’t. It’s strictly food and the incredible people who make it, live it, and serve it.

I love different styles of photography. Cassic images of softly lit kitchens, drenched in sunlight, with ingredients scattered in earth-tones across a wooden table. The brightly-colored studio shots with sharper-than-sharp details and playful, graphic forms. Artful imperfection and the aftermath of a good meal illustrated in bread-scraped plates smeared with sauce, crumpled napkins, and spills of red wine on a white tablecloth. I adore all these scenes and ways of approaching the subject of food.

What I find really resonates with me is the gritty environment of a kitchen, with all the textures of steel walls and flaming stoves wearing fresh spills and spots of dishes recently crafted and served. I think it must be so hard to be a chef. To work in a hot and busy kitchen, day after day. To build a menu. To interact with a small army of sous chefs and line cooks, waitstaff, and vendors. I’m sure at times it feels like fighting a small war. I like to capture that in my images because it’ what I see. I also see that very often, none of the struggle, if any, seems to appear on the plate. So many of the chefs I work with create works of art on their stoneware. I see all the chemistry and timing involved in cooking that they manage so incredibly well in its final form. I want to capture the graphic shapes of seafood, the surface of a seasonal vegetable or the lines of a plate of pasta, perfectly plated. I want it to be clear and vibrant and true, every time

 

Because food is your specialty, and this is a food website, what are three CT restaurants (feel free to name more) that you love and why? And yes, you can name a place or places that you shoot for!

Oh boy. This is a real Sophie’s Choice, here.

I love At the Corner in Litchfield. Chef Carlos Perez is such a magician with ingredients. He takes local, seasonal foods and builds a menu around each. He also brings his influences in Asian cuisines as well as other cuisines and adds them to his American menu items. He’s endlessly curious and always trying new things.

Mecha Noodle Bar is a big favorite. I used to go there with my daughter, Sarah, often for big bowls of ramen and pork bao buns. She was not an adventurous eater back then, but she was all in for noods at Mecha.

The Shipwright’s Daughter in Mystic is another favorite. Chef David Standridge and his commitment to using the oft-overlooked bounty of the waters of the sound are a state treasure. Monkfish Mortadella and green crab fried rice are two of my favorite dishes there. I could eat that fried rice every night.

The Laurel in West Hartford is crazy good. Chef Ashley Flagg cooks with her whole heart, and that really resonates with me. I had brunch there this past Sunday when she came to the table to talk about some of the dishes she was serving us. She always lovingly mentions her grandmother almost every time she talks about her own food. I can relate to that connection from my formative years cooking alongside my mother in our Vermont kitchen. Ashley does that every day in her restaurant, and we are all the lucky recipients of that.

There are SO many other places that I love and deserve the highest praise. I feel terrible that I don’t have the space to shout them all out here. You know who you are, and I love you all.

 

What’s coming up for you and for Bread & Beast in the near future? And what’s the best way to reach you for photography inquiries?

From August 2023 until about two months ago, I was splitting my time between upstate New York and Connecticut. My plan when I moved was to build some business up there, but continue to work here until I had enough to sustain me in NY. So, for two years, I went back and forth as needed. Crashing on my sister’s couch with her two dogs when I was here. Then heading back to New York until I needed to return. In June, I realized that I really did not want to leave Connecticut or the absolutely incredible people I have been so lucky to partner with over the last nine years. I’d be a fool to walk away from what I have here. Instead, I realized I need to build on what I have here.

In a few weeks, I'll be moving into a studio space I’ve rented in Manchester in the historic Hillard Mills. It’s an old wool mill with tons of natural light and sky-high ceilings. I’ll be partnering with The Kitchen Company in North Haven to install a working kitchen. I’ll be pulling my prop, dish, surface, and textile collection out of storage (and adding a lot more pieces) for clients to use. I hope to be the go-to food photography studio in the state, shooting my own work as well as renting out the space to other creatives.

I want to express my deep gratitude to the culinary community here in Connecticut that has so warmly embraced me this last decade. You’ve allowed me to be in your faces and kitchens as you work, flashing strobes, and I’m sure getting in the way while trying so hard not to. To me, you are the salt of the earth. Hard-working, endlessly creative, passionate, and deeply dedicated. The partnership between photography and food is a natural one for me, an extension of my history, and my gift to others.

breadbeastphotographer.com

And follow Bread & Beast on Instagram @bread_and_beast

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