With Herman’s Ribhouse reopening after being closed for the past six months, it seemed like a good time to pull these images out of the archives.
I photographed Herman’s a couple of years ago for Plated Magazine, and the shoot included a little bit of everything—the food, the interior and exterior of the restaurant, and the bar out back.
Food photography is always a fun challenge because the goal is pretty simple: make the food look as good in a photograph as it does when it lands on the table. The biggest challenge is creating beautiful light on the spot, when ample space isn’t always available. And if you’ve ever been in Hermans, you know the space is limited.
But restaurant photography is about more than just the food. It’s also about the atmosphere. At Herman’s, that means the iconic red-checked tablecloth, the saltine crackers and the photos and memorabilia covering the walls, documenting years of people, visits and happy memories. Inclduing snippets of these things help give you a sense of what it’s actually like to walk through the door and have a meal there.
It’s nice to have a classic piece of old Fayetteville back.
And for restaurants looking to tell their own story, I’m always happy to talk about creating food and restaurant photography that captures not only what’s on the table, but the character of the place around it. As a restaurant photographer in Northwest Arkansas, I love these shoots because every restaurant has its own personality and story to tell.