About Kristen Penoyer

Kristen is a professional photographer and self-professed "food nerd" with a passion for documenting the culinary world from seed to plate. A serial creative, she's launched several photography related businesses. Kristen has lived in five countries, crushed grapes under her feet in Argentina, spent days on goat farms, educated by South American sommeliers, and mastered the art of Uruguayan wood coal grilling. 

Professional Background

Kristen Penoyer’s creative foundation was formed early, shaped by an artistic upbringing and a deep engagement with making things by hand. She moved naturally through sculpture, oil painting, fiber arts, paper craft, and ceramics—developing a respect for process, material, and form long before photography became her primary medium.

She discovered photography in a high school darkroom, where developing her first roll of film shifted a creative interest into a professional direction. She entered the photography industry soon after, working initially in wedding and portrait photography while immersing herself in post-production, design, product development, and education.

That hands-on experience led to teaching, the launch of her boutique studio, Kay Photography, and the development of workflow and album design classes for photographers. These classes evolved into published articles and later into a successful industry publication that has been adopted by colleges as an instructional resource.

She later co-founded Design Aglow, collaborating with a world-class creative team to produce award-winning resources for professional photographers, including templates, e-classes, actions, presets, editorial content, and marketing tools.

With more than 25 years of experience spanning photography and creative business, her work has since come full circle in the culinary world. She now collaborates closely with chefs, farmers, and boutique food producers to document craft, process, and place. Her work has taken her from vineyards in Argentina and goat farms in South America to beekeeping operations, sommelier training, and wood-fire kitchens—experiences that continue to inform her visual language.

Having lived in five countries and traveled extensively, she brings a global perspective grounded in authenticity, craftsmanship, and storytelling. Today, her focus is on creating thoughtful, honest imagery that honors the people and traditions behind food.

Current work and ongoing projects can be found on the blog and Instagram.