Ken Epstein wins IACP 2009 People's Choice Award

WOW! I am both excited and surprised. I created an image with Phoenix food stylist, Traci Zitzer, and a local baker to capture the feeling and emotion of an artisan bread baker as he works his dough. The baker arrived at the studio with a tub of dough, some flour and his hands. I spent an hour and a half capturing him throwing, kneading, pulling, shaping and stretching his dough. I decided not to concentrate on everything being technically perfect but to capture the work flow as it happened. What a feeling of freedom to not worry if this was the perfect plate of food!! We captured over 200 images in various angles and situations. Traci and I spent many hours editing images and finally narrowed it down to two images. We entered the image into the International Association of Culinary Professionals (we are both members) annual photo exhibition. This year the convention was in Denver. I am glad Traci was there this past weekend to hear our names being called and to go onstage to accept in front of the world's greatest culinary professionals.

Here is the winning image-