ALICE WATERS & LULU
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles — Visual Identity, Documentary & Editorial Photography
That's where I came in. Jamie Altman and Jesse McBride, who were running things there, took a chance on me, and I took my time designing a look and feel that was soft, warm, and welcoming. Funny enough, I drew most of my inspiration from early-'90s kids' shows like Little Bear and Franklin the Turtle—that gentle, hand-drawn warmth. From there I outfitted Lulu with a full year of catalog photography, covering both their events with the Hammer Museum and the restaurant itself, along with high-profile work capturing celebrities who joined them and mornings at the Santa Monica Farmers Market.
What stayed with me most was Alice herself. Her conviction that better food and farming can leave the world better for our children reshaped how I work. I carry it everywhere now—and it's a big reason I've become genuinely selective about who I work with. I quietly check that a restaurant's sustainable and regenerative claims are real, because plenty of places say the words without living them. Lulu lives them.
I was introduced to Alice Waters and David Tanis at Lulu, the restaurant in the courtyard of the Hammer Museum in Westwood, through a mutual contact. Lulu had opened a few years earlier—conceived with Alice Waters, the matriarch of California cuisine, and led by David Tanis, the longtime Chez Panisse chef and New York Times food writer—but it was still searching for a cohesive visual language across its photography and video.
