Daily Inspiration: Meet Julia Stotz

Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia Stotz.

Hi Julia, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
From an early age, I was excited about photography, but it wasn’t until high school that I started really learning the fundamentals of it. In college, I ended up switching my degree and pursuing a fine arts BA in photography at Columbia College in Chicago. From there, I always knew I was interested in the editorial and commercial aspects of photography. It felt like a way to be collaborative and work as a group on the project at hand. I was always interested in food photography and still life work, but it wasn’t until I moved to Los Angeles that I started to solely seek out opportunities to lend my work in that direction. By shifting the work I showed, I was able to curate the career I had always dreamed of – to be a full-time freelance food photographer.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
At first, when I was just starting to figure out the path to being freelance, I worked a lot of part time jobs. I worked as a gallery assistant at Rhona Hoffman Gallery, an assistant to the artist Luke Batten, an assistant to the Robert Heineken Estate, a teacher’s assistant to an after-school art program, and a photo assistant to commercial photographers. When I decided I wanted to work fully for myself, I opened my own business making homemade books, portfolios, and boxes for artists. From there, I started picking up little assignments as a photographer for local businesses and editorial assignments for TimeOut Chicago and Refinery29. It took years of small jobs and low-paying projects until my work took off. From my experience, freelance is full of ups and downs, and it takes a while with lots of effort until it propels itself into a successful career.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a food photographer, my assignments take me from working with magazines and newspapers such as Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, and The New York Times to working commercially with clients such as Starbucks, Postmates, Johnnie Walker, KFC, and Sweetgreen. My campaigns appear in magazines, on social media, and on billboards. As my career grows, I think the most important aspect of my work is to support the people who collaborate with me, and recognize that the work couldn’t be done without the full scope of the production. There are the stylists, producers, lighting and digital techs, as well as my rep and agency that make it all come to life. There is the agency or magazine and the clients I work with that all additionally contribute ideas to the final vision. I want my food photography to make you feel like you want to join in on the festivities, to envelop you in rich colors and light, and make the food feel crave-able and delicious. I am proud of the community that grows when you focus the work on the connection and gathering that food has on people.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
My agency, Apostrophe Reps, has hugely supported my career including the people within it: Dani, Andrew, Kelly, Lauren, Mia, Julia, Tracey, and Darnell to name just a few. My first agency, I Heart Reps, also helped push my career when I first moved to LA. My crew mates are my rocks. Sherman, Sammy, Brian, and Erik have all brought my vision to life with such care and visual support. My food, prop, and wardrobe stylists have translated ideas into existence with the most unique style and vibes and I quite literally couldn’t photograph without them – Samantha Margherita, Amy Lipnis, Caroline k Hwang, Nidia Cueva, Casey Dobbins, Maya Bookbinder, Natalie Shriver are just a few of the dozens of stylists I collaborate with. Producers such as Viv at Peppermade and the lovely people at Caravan, just to name a couple, truly pull a production and make sure everything is buttoned up. My husband, Brian Guido, who is an incredibly talented photographer as well, shares a company, studio, gear, and ideas with me and has been my rock from the very beginning of both our careers. And my parents and family have always believed in me, even at the beginning when it was a struggle to get from one project to the next.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://juliastotz.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/juliastotz

Image Credits
Julia Stotz Photography