Design, Inspiration

Creative Fridays: An Interview with Jennifer Jenner

Jennifer (known to most as JJ) was one of the first food bloggers I befriended years and years ago. Since then we’ve worked together on various projects, drunk lots of tea together and spent an inordinate amount of time gossiping. Welcome JJ!

Hello! Who are you and what do you do?

Hi there! I’m JJ, a food photographer and stylist, commercial recipe developer, social media consultant and speaker. Sometimes I blog too.

What work are you most proud of to date?

Landing my first proper off-blog photography job and the time my Rainbow Ice Pops post went mental and showed up on media sites across the globe rank up there. More recently I’m pretty proud of a cookbook I shot for a client at the end of last year.

What was the turning point in your career?

Realising that I could actually do what I love and make a living out of it! There are so many challenges to working for yourself but on the good days you know you are the one making things happen, and the one reaping the benefits.

Who would you love to collaborate with one day?

Oh so many people… My Instagram is filled with such gorgeous inspiration and I would love to collaborate with almost anyone – however some dream partnerships would include Beth Kirby from Local Milk, Sydney-based stylist David Morgan, the ever lovely Luisa Brimble, and of course the king of mad science Heston Blumenthal.

What’s your number one tip for someone wanting to start their own business/blog?

Just start! And whatever you do, do it with love and passion.

Don’t worry about perfection, be ok with failing fast, then bounce back and iterate to meet the needs of your audience and yourself. Blogging has changed so much in Australia over the last 3-5 years, it’s treated as a business and people seem to think they need to launch fully-formed blogs, but then they expect immediate stratospheric success and it’s obvious when the effort is forced. Make sure to do things your own way, you can look to others for inspiration but no one needs an exact copy of what’s already out there. (I never was very good at that just one tip thing – ha!)