Foods And Photos

Photography seems pretty straightforward.

Get a camera, point it at a subject, and snap the photo. But photographers know much more goes into a photo than three simple steps. Producing an excellent image is an art, deeply loved and appreciated by those who chose to make it their career.

For Kat Wilson, this career path began as a small child.

"Both of my grandmothers would use me for a model in their photo shoots," she says. "Of course, I was very young at the time, but it introduced me to cameras. They both had really nice cameras and allowed me to play with them."

This early introduction led the young girl to develop a "romantic idea" of traveling as a talented photographer, she says, being paid for her craft and taking pictures around the world.

And while she is not currently circling the globe, she has realized that childhood ambition.

Wilson is a 2002 graduate of the University of Central Arkansas, where she studied under popular photographer Maxine Payne, who Wilson says was a major influence on her photography.

"I couldn't wait to take photography classes," she says. "I absolutely fell in love with it, with the darkroom. After graduation, I worked as a photographer's assistant, where I learned more from hands on. In art school, we talked a lot about concept, so working gave me more that experience."

Wilson would go on to work for Dillard's, shoot for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and work as a staff photographer for the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, but another long-standing career goal led her in another direction.

"I had wanted to be a professor," she says. "So I went to the University of Arkansas for my MFA. It gives me the chance to always work on my art."

Recently, Wilson's photography has led her to a unique, and sometimes tricky, subject: food. Although she usually photographs people, the artist is particularly talented in shooting what she calls a very stylized, dark and ethereal treatment that strays away from the status quo.

"It's very dramatic, the way I am lighting it," she says. "I shoot food the way I want to shoot food."

It was this unique method that led her to do a food shoot with her old boss, Dero Sanford, at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art earlier this year. A week later, Wilson received a call from chef Case Dighero, inviting her to participate in one of the museum's most popular events.

Wilson will bring her unique method of lighting and shooting food to Crystal Bridges tonight as part of the museum's Photo Salon program.

As part of the program, Wilson will present a 20-minute talk about her own work, focusing on both food-centric shooting and not. The remainder of the program will be hands-on learning divided into three stations.

"The three stations will focus on how to light food," she says. "They will all be a little scandalous." These stations present a workshop on lighting using one and multiple lights to create the desired effect. "It's a new way to learn about lighting.

"I think people will really learn from my workshop," Wilson continues. "This is a great introduction to lighting, which can be pretty intimidating. I'm also going to show how to light using less expensive lights that you can pick up at Lowe's or Home Depot. I know what it feels like to want to do something and not have the means to do it, so I'm going to show how the same look can be achieved for less."