Photography by Victoria Sedefian

If you’ve ever been lured to a Saratoga restaurant or wine bar by a social media post alone, chances are, you have Victoria Sedefian to blame. Or, rather, to thank.

A former bar manager turned food and drinks photographer, Sedefian is passionate about hospitality, flavor, and composition. And it shows on the ’gram, where most of her client work lands.

This summer, I caught up with her on the patio of Hamlet & Ghost, her first real, longtime client, as she pointed and clicked at a tantalizing spread of seasonal specials. 

lights, camera… A dessert photographed for 15 Church, which Sedefian says has the best mid-day lighting of all the restaurants she works with.

“The team here is practically family,” says Sedefian, who used to manage the bar program at Hamlet & Ghost. “I grew up in Ballston Spa and I’ve always worked in hospitality in some form, but it wasn’t until I moved to New York City and worked in a dinner theater, and then moved back here and was trained at Salt & Char by older bartenders under Chef Gray Kunz, that I really got it”—it being the way a thoughtfully crafted cocktail or plate of pasta can tell not only a story of time and place, but of culture and history, too. Such dishes and drinks are like little poems that land on your table and will disappear forever…unless someone like Sedefian manages to capture them in her crosshairs. 

“I’d never considered hospitality as a full-time career,” Sedefian says. “But I began to understand how amazing the people behind the bar and in the kitchen are, and how invested they are in showing people a good time and telling a larger story.”

portrait mode (from top) “I love photographing produce because of its texture and imperfections,” Sedefian says; a cocktail from Hamlet & Ghost; A portrait of Pruitt Kerdchoochuen, the chef de cuisine at Eliza in Kingston, that Sedefian shot for The Dishing.

It was then that she realized that the food and beverage industry wasn’t just a stop on her way to something else—it was a lifestyle that she genuinely adored. 

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do exactly, and my husband, who is a traveling computer programmer, gave me the grace to explore,” she says. “We traveled together and he worked while I figured things out.”

During their travels, Sedefian homed in on the more quaffable aspects of their life on the road, and in the process, discovered her calling.

“I started posting photos and videos of the cocktails I made based on the culture of the places we were in,” she says. One example? A fermented fruit cocktail from Peru called a Chi Chi that served as an intellectual and stylistic turning point for the photographer. In her eyes, sharing photos of the drink was just one way to tell the story of a country and its people.

Then, she went all in, pouring time and effort into perfecting the craft of visual storytelling, reading every book and online resource she could, investing in equipment, and honing her presentation. 

“When we came back, I was so lucky to have a willing guinea pig in Hamlet & Ghost,” she says. “I know them so well, and they know me, and we were able to just naturally fall into the rhythm of storytelling through pictures.”

Quickly, Sedefian took over Hamlet’s social media accounts, and then started getting gigs from other local restaurants, bars, food companies, magazines, and websites. Her current clients include Kindred, Maplebrook Creamery, 15 Church, and The Dishing, a dining guide published by local restaurant critic Susie Davidson Powell.

“Victoria doesn’t just take beautiful photos and videos,” says Kait Smith, owner of 15 Church. “She helps us tell the story of our restaurant. People connect with us online before they ever walk through our doors, and she helps make that connection feel real.”

These days, Sedefian is a full-time freelancer. And she’s never had to seek out her own clients. 

“All of my work has come through my Instagram or word of mouth,” she says. “I’m busy, and I’m grateful.”

Sedefian knows how rare it is to make a living doing what you love. But she also knows that doing so isn’t as hard as people imagine.

“Find your niche within what you love,” she says. “It may seem like building a career on food and drink photography is impossible. But if you really love what you do, work hard, and take the time to learn what works—and how to stand out just enough—it’ll come together.”

For anyone struggling to make their own cocktail and food pictures sing amid a haze of dull-as-dishwater posts on social media, Sedefian’s advice is equally simple, smart, and actionable: “Find the moment that no one else would think to capture,” she says. “Like when you sous vide a fish, and a rainbow of color emerges. And lighting. Understanding lighting is key.”

That cocktail of passion, precision, and technique is foundational to Sedefian’s success—and it’s revolutionizing the way Saratoga restaurants are communicating with their customers.

“Before, guests only knew about our specials if they came in,” Smith says of 15 Church’s pre-Sedefian era. “Now, if we’re running something for a week or a few days, we can post it online and get people excited to come in before it’s gone. She’s become a huge part of how we connect with our guests.”  

cheese, please (from top)“I love the way icing looks when the light hits it from behind,” Sedefian says; a recent shoot Sedefian did for Maplebrook Creamery in Vermont.