On this episode of Wellfed I speak with Alex Lau, staff photographer at Bon Appétit magazine. A good way to describe this episode is to quote Alex, “when people ask me how do you get here, I have no idea I just had a lot of different interests and some of them panned out and some them didn’t.”
Bon Appétit Staff Photographer Alex Lau discusses his early career interning for a number of New York magazines before landing at Bon Appétit
Alex was gracious enough to sit down with me after returning from a work assignment in Los Angeles. We talked about his childhood growing up between Queens and San Francisco. Although Alex is now a photographer, photography didn’t come into the picture till later on in his career. Alex was a competitive swimmer and studied Jazz till the end of high school. Although Alex there were a few moments in school where he picked up a camera for the school newspaper he never considered it something he wanted to pursue.
Bon Appétit Staff Photographer Alex Lau discusses his early career interning for a number of New York magazines before landing at Bon Appétit
When it came time to apply to colleges, Alex mostly auditioned for Jazz programs until he decided it wasn’t for him. He then applied to a journalism program in Boston and returned to the east coast to begin his college career. While on the east coast Alex interned within the men’s fashion industry and learned the ropes of what it was like to work for major magazine companies. He also got to watch Ryan Gosling’s dog during a photoshoot!
Eventually Alex landed an internship at Bon Appétit magazine as a photo intern. This exposed him to a completely different side of the media industry. By the end of his internship he came away feeling fulfilled and inspired to pursue a career in food publishing. Alex returned to Boston to finish out his program while working for the Boston Magazine where he was able to write stories and photograph for the magazine’s website.
As graduating neared for Alex he lined up a job as a production assistant at Food and Wine magazine. At the same time his colleagues at Bon Appétit reached out to him as they just opened up a new role for a staff photographer at the magazine. With two amazing opportunities in front of him Alex joined the Bon Appétit team and the rest is history.
Big thanks to Alex for joining me on this episode!
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Footnotes
- Hart’s in Bedstuy
- Gen in Crown Heights
- Barboncino Pizza
- Nylon Magazine
- Ryan Gosling’s Dog
