Culbert finds a quiet corner for a short break at his wine market in Lafayette.

Food is an international language – one that South Louisianans know well. A sandwich of juicy hand-pulled pork piled high, with a bacon fig jam in a shiny buttered bun needs no further explanation. Just ask Denny Culbert, a commercial and editorial food photographer, who’s made a career of taking food photographs that make people think, “I want some of that!”

Ironically Culbert’s story of chasing food begins in the land of meat and potatoes: northeastern Ohio. He became sold on the art form in a darkroom at his high school while taking a black and white photography class. “The darkroom made the process more tangible – like I was really creating something,” he says. Fixated on photography, he would later job shadow a photojournalist in Ohio who would set him on the start of his career path. “It was a great way to learn about new places; I went to every festival, school board meeting and football game,” he recalls.

He would go on to get a degree in visual communications from Ohio University, with a concentration in photojournalism. Two years after graduating in 2007, he landed in Lafayette working for The Morning Advocate and then The Daily Advertiser. 

It was while at The Advertiser, writing a column called “Dishing it Out,” that Culbert was exposed to food photography on a regular basis as he visited local restaurants, interviewing owners and chefs. It was a great learning ground for the guy who’d never seen an oyster before moving to Lafayette. In 2011 he took a job with Southern Foodways Alliance, traveling to North and South Carolina, along with a writer from Lafayette, interviewing pitmasters from some of the best BBQ places in those areas. “We lived in an RV and spent nights with guys cooking pigs,” he says still with a hint of fondness.

After honing his craft as a photojournalist, Culbert took his knowledge and used that same aesthetic and style to start a career in food photography. He worked with chefs in New Orleans and spent the past 10 years photographing many facets of the food industry, shooting everything from food stills and portraits to knife jugglers and chefs covered in spices. 

Using a Nikon Z9, he captures the beauty and variety of Louisiana’s food. His photographs are raw and refined at the same time, dramatically lit and lush. To help him achieve his signature vibe, he says, “I’ll always take a window, if I can get it. Otherwise, I try to use a flash – but don’t want it to look like a flash, so I use two to three wireless flashes to create something else. I try to get interesting light, so I play with shadows and streaks.” 

Culbert’s images seem to be a reflection of a genuine personality that comes across in conversation.  “I like photographing a slice of life or something that’s real, rather than creating something,” he says. “I like to be a fly on the wall in the kitchen, or with a farmer or a fisherman on a boat, and create what’s happening.” That said, his photos masterfully reflect the vibe of a restaurant or the vision of a chef, from funky to sophisticated to sexy or earthy.  

He’s taken humble ingredients like carrots and turned them into works of art, a forte that will bring him to Texas in January to photograph a series of vegetables. “That will be a nice departure from the Louisiana fare – although I do love shooting pictures of boudin, cracklin and gumbo,” says the man who has made a career of shooting “all the brown foods.”

In addition to his shooting stills, Culbert helped produce an episode of the television series “Dirt,” shot in New Orleans. “I had to find all the characters for the show,” he says. “The cool thing about working in food is that I’m working among some of the most interesting and brilliant people who are always innovating and excited about what they’re doing.” Such people include Sarah Roland, owner of Louisiana’s only water buffalo dairy Bayou Sarah Farms, who appears on the documentary.

His work has taken him across the South and to Oaxaca, Mexico, where he captured images of the mezcal liqueur brand, Criollo de Oaxaca. 

Some of his more high-profile clients include Tabasco, Condé Nast, Hennessy, Bombay Sapphire and CC’s Coffeehouse. His food images can be found in advertising, documentaries, and magazines, the likes of Southern Living, Saveur, Garden & Gun, Bon Appetit and Wine Spectator. His work is credited in several cookbooks including “Cure: New Orleans Drinks and How to Make ‘Em” (released at the end of September) and Kevin Belton’s “Cookin’ Louisiana.” He’s perhaps most proud (and deservedly so) of his work in the James Beard award-winning cookbook “Mosquito Supper Club,” a three-year long collaboration with Chef Melissa Martin.

“I’ve gotten good at being comfortable with my camera in small hot kitchen spaces. I’ve never been stabbed or burned yet.”

It’s no surprise to those who know him that Culbert says he plans to begin focusing his work more on wine makers and vineyards. In 2020 he and wife Katie opened Wild Child Wines, a small market downtown in Lafayette offering small batch wines from select imports around the globe. “We wanted the store to be more like the farmers market of wines. We modeled it after small shops in Paris that are more like neighborhood community spaces,” explains Culbert. The wines are chosen for their more careful farming practices that are beyond organic, using natural fermentation without sulfur, for instance. 

Spare time is precious – there’s the shop, his assignments and his family (the couple has a four-year-old daughter) – but Culbert enjoys it when he can step out and photograph wildlife. It’s evident that he’s not lost sight of how he’s gotten to where he is. “I’m fortunate to have stumbled into this career and made South Louisiana home, and I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.”