She’s lived in England, traveled all around the world and has taken root in St. Louis to expand her growing business. After graduation, she moved to England and completed assignments for the European newspaper, Stars and Stripes, covering the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II . From there, she traveled through Greece, Scotland, France, Wales, the Netherlands and Australia. Bish specializes in shooting culinary, wedding and portrait photography, but began her career with a photojournalism degree. “With my training as a photojournalist, I have learned how to photograph people and events in a candid way, but at the sametime I know lighting, so I am very diverse in my ability to work a variety of assignments,” she says. She has worked for St. Louis Magazine since 2003 and has also shot over 1200 assignments for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, including food critic Joe Bonwich’s reviews. She’s currently working on a series of cookbook projects with local French chef Chef Marc Felix as well as shooting for agencies such as Kochan and Company. She says her job is very rewarding because she gets to meet and photograph so many amazing people, like Wolfgang Puck, Jacques Pepin, and Cat Cora. “My job takes me to so many new places,” she says. One of these places is Chicago, where she worked on a PBS Cookbook featuring 17 types of ethnic foods. She’s also completed four ethnic cookbooks with G. Bradley Publishing Company. “I love building good, solid relationships with people and being trusted with a project,” she says. “I enjoy the creative challenge of being a photographer.”
Bish attributes her success to immersing herself into her work and learning as much as she can, and it’s paying off. Her award-winning food photography has been seen in National Geographic Traveler, Food and W**e, Gourmet, Bon Appetit and The Wall Street Journal. With a schedule as busy as hers, not one day is the same as the next. She’s answering calls, responding to e-mails, editing photos or shooting in the studio. Katherine is also a member of the St. Louis chapter of Les Dames d’Escossier, a worldwide philanthropic society of professional women leaders in the fields of food, fine beverage and hospitality. She is also involved, Big Brothers Big Sisters and Stray Rescue. Because of her love for traveling and working on her cookbook projects, Bish says in the future, she would love to travel the world while working on various photography projects. www.katherinebish.com
