Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Murielle Banackissa. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Murielle , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The most meaningful project I have worked on is writing my cookbook. I was approached by Appetite, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada in the summer of 2020 to work on a proposal for a cookbook. After it was approved that same year, I got to work on my very first vegan cookbook. This was the biggest project I have ever had to work on because of its scope. Over the course of a year and a half, I created and wrote 100 recipes as well styled, shots, and edited all the pictures that are featured in my book.

This project was very meaningful to me because most of my work is about creating recipes and shooting food photos for brands based on their aesthetic and/or the ingredients they’d like to be featured. This means that oftentimes, I will create images and recipes that are not a perfect reflection of my own personal style or don’t tell a story I would like to tell.

With my cookbook, I had the opportunity to work on a project that is very personal. One that is an ode to my mixed upbringing: my mom is of Russian descent, my dad is of Congolese descent and I immigrated to Canada at 8 years old. I got to share veganized family recipes and stories that I had never shared before. I also got to put into words what has always drawn me to cooking: it’s a form of art that allows me to slow down and enjoy the process of transformation of ingredients into dishes with complex flavors, textures, and colors.

I cannot wait for my book, Savoring, to be out into the world next year on March 5th, 2024.

Murielle , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a food photographer, food stylist, recipe developer, blogger, soon-to-be cookbook author, and educator. I studied International Business and Marketing at university. During my schooling years, I noticed a growing trend on Instagram where people would share photos of the meals they were making and eating. At that point, I had had a dslr camera for a few years, but never dabbled in food photography. However, since I loved cooking (I have been in the kitchen from a very young age), I figured, why not put both passions together.

That’s how I started taking photos of my culinary creations. In order to grow my photography skills, I watched countless food photography tutorials on YouTube and tried to apply what I learned into every photoshoot I did (back then on my mom’s coffee table, using her sheer curtain as a diffuser). Once I graduated university, I had the opportunity to shoot for a friend of mine who started his ice cream company. That was the first time I realized I could actually get paid for food images. From this point, I decided I would start pitching my services (food photography and styling) to brands. Slowly but surely, I got some clients and my business took off.

I also really loved creating recipes and so weekly, I’d share a new recipe on my blog (www.muriellebanackissa.com). Prospective clients noticed this so I started receiving requests for recipe development. Unsure at first how that would look like, I learned quickly that clients from around the world could send me their products and I could create recipes that featured them. Then these recipes could live on the clients’ website or social media channels.

Fast forward to present day, I have been a food photographer, stylist and recipe developer for 7 years now. I have worked with brands like Simple Mills, Silk, Lindt, Target, Nespresso, So Delicious, and DoorDash. One of the big problems I help my clients solve is that I know how difficult it can be for companies to find, hire, and manage multiple skilled and professional individuals for their campaigns or product launches (from recipe developers, cooks, assistants, stylists, photographers, retouchers, and more!) and rather than having to find, manage, and hire all these people, I can offer a package deal that is tailored to their specific needs.

Apart from client work, my career has taken me into a direction I never really expected: writing my first cookbook, which is coming out next year.

Through all that, I also have a passion for education. I love teaching others about food photography, styling and editing. This passion has led me to start a YouTube channel (@MurielleBanackissa). It is a place where I share tips and tricks on how to improve your food photography skills, how to edit dark and moody images, and which tools I love most.

I’d say that I am really proud of how I was able to build my business from scratch and come this far. My story is a great testament that hard work, resilience, and desire to grow can really open up doors that you never thought could be opened.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

These are lessons that I learned:

– Get an accountant! Having a qualified individual answer all your questions at every stage of growth of your business can really bring so much peace of mind. And it also allows to delegate a little work to someone else so that not every aspect of your business has to be managed by you.

– Find a community. Because the type of work I do is not very common, pricing was extremely difficult at first. When you are all on your own you do so much more guess work than is necessary and the odds of you underpricing yourself are much higher (I am talking from experience!). Once I connected, mostly through social media, with other creatives that operate in the same field as me, I was able to have conversations about pricing that allowed me to price myself in a way that reflected better the market rates and the value of my work.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I love the entire creation process. From the moment you get an idea or receive a brief and you feel kind of overwhelmed, but then you break it down into smaller tasks to when slowly but surely, you accomplish the tasks you identified and bring your project to life.

Whenever a project is done, I love looking back at the journey I had to go on to get to the finish line. It brings me a lot of joy and satisfaction. It also serves as a good reminder of my ability to bring projects to completion.

Another thing I love about being an artist or creative is that every day is different. I never do the exact same thing daily, which really keeps things exciting for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://muriellebanackissa.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/muriellebanackissa/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/murielle-banackissa/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@muriellebanackissa

Image Credits
All images were shot by me and styled by me.