Grand View University alumna Sophie Saks, a local photographer, is being featured in the Prairie Meadows Photo Gallery, located on the second floor of the Student Center. The gallery showcases photos by five different artists over the school year, each handpicked by Assistant Professor Doug Wells.

Sophie Saks is a natural-light portrait and commercial food photographer. She started shooting food in 2013 and soon became very serious about her food photography. She had connections to restaurants as her dad owns a restaurant in Dubuque and her boyfriend was a sous chef at Biaggi’s in West Des Moines.

The typical photo shoot for dishes of food can take up to three hours, depending what the restaurant asks for, Saks said. She expects the chefs to “spoof up” the plate, making it look a bit nicer than usual.

Saks now works primarily for Court Avenue Restaurant and Brewing Company in downtown Des Moines on social media content and regularly photographs menu items for promotional use.

“I’d like to be full time working for myself here in Des Moines. I would like to just solely specialize in children and families and commercial food.”

Saks said she is proud of her photography being in the gallery. This was her chance to see her food photos actually blown up and displayed in a gallery setting.

Saks’ advice to students is, “Figure out what you want to do and (get) tunnel vision. Focus on that, and push yourself toward it. You pretty much … create your opportunities by asking for them. Don’t sit around and wait for the opportunity to come to you.”

Wells knew Saks as a student.

“She knew what she wanted to do, she knew what she was going to do and she was somebody who had in her mind what she wanted out of it,” Wells said.

Assistant Professor Doug Wells decides which photographer is displayed in the Prairie Meadows Photo Gallery

While at Grand View, Saks’ photography focused mainly on people. Wells didn’t even know she was doing food photography until he saw some of her work on social media.

“She started putting it on Facebook, and so that’s how I saw her food stuff,” Wells said. “And I thought, wow she’s pretty good.”

He then invited her to display her photos in the photo gallery. Wells said developing photographers can learn a lot from Saks.

He also talked about what sets her apart. He thinks it is interesting that she almost always uses natural light.

“Her photos aren’t manipulated, they’re more natural,” Wells said.