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Oral Histories

The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region. If you would like to contribute to SFA’s oral history collections, please send your ideas for oral history along with your CV or Resume and a portfolio of prior oral history work to info@southernfoodways.org.

< Back to Oral History project: COVID-19 Project

ORAL HISTORY

Stephen DeVries

Eleven Productions

Born in 1985, DeVries was raised in Ohio. In 2007, he transferred to University of Alabama at Birmingham and majored in photography. After he graduated, he primarily photographed weddings. Soon, he found that he enjoyed making still life images. In 2012, DeVries transitioned to food and beverage photography for clients in Birmingham, New York, Florida, and elsewhere in the United States. His company gradually expanded, and in 2016, he purchased a part of the Acme building and built a customized studio. DeVries and his team of three employees photograph and film for brands ranging from local restaurants to national grocery stores.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, DeVries ceased his busy travel schedule. He and his team worked remotely, and DeVries moved his studio into his garage. As the pandemic progressed, they returned to their studio and began styling and shooting food and beverage photography sessions while following social distancing protocols and a changing food landscape.

Date of interview:
2020-06-18

Interviewer:
Michelle Litlle

Photographer:

Download Transcript Download Transcript 2

“

"We spent a lot of the year [2020] adapting to what COVID shooting looked like, because we couldn’t have clients on set anymore, so now we had to figure out how to work with clients who were thousands of miles away, but also wanting to act as if they’re right here with us and making decisions, creative decisions on set, so we had to work on ways to screenshare and to get footage and video and photos across the Internet to people offsite in a clean and clear way that they could actually participate creatively. We had to do lots of COVID testing for crew and tracking who was with who, and taking temperatures, so it was sort of adding a lot of layers to the work we did that were, you know, adapting to the COVID world." - Stephen DeVries

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