Houston-based photographer Julie Soefer has made a name for herself as one of the leading culinary, portrait and interiors photographers in the Southwest. Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Texas Monthly, and Food and Wine and has graced the covers of HoustonMagazine , Luxe Magazine, and Texas Interiors. Julie has contributed images to multiple cookbooks and has photographed for national advertising campaigns.

A graduate of the Tisch School for the Arts at New York University, Julie began her career working with two legendary New York photographers--Arnold Newman and Andrew Eccles—and produced photo shoots for major motion picture studios and television networks, including the photo used in the movie poster for Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me. In 2010, Julie was a finalist for New York’s prestigious Hearst Photography Biennial.

Dance, fashion and photography are the poles of Claudia Casbarian’s millennial take on the arts. Like her boss, Julie Soefer, the newly minted Rice Graduate (Class of 2012) is a lifelong Houstonian, who has worked independently for the web-based magazine CultureMap Houston, as well as Cite, published by the Rice Design Alliance. “I like the technicality of it,” says Claudia of photography. “I also like science and math. It’s a technical art.” Lest anybody take her for a nerd, however, Claudia has a keen interest in pop culture, regarding Lady Gaga and Kanye West as the two living stars she would like to meet most in the world. In the spring of 2011, while still a student, Claudia found the perfect way to combine her interest in art and fashion by photographing three months worth of her own outfits for a project titled “Daily Dress.”