Meet the Pittsburgher Who Turns Food Manufacturers Into Bonafide Stars

PHOTOGRAPHER ADAM MILLIRON AND LEAD STYLIST ANA KELLY AT IRON MILL STUDIO IN NORTH POINT BREEZE. | PHOTO BY ELAN MIZRAHI

Adam Milliron throws elaborate events 5 days every week that no one attends.

His eating places and grocery shops are devoid of patrons, however he’s some of the profitable figures within the native culinary world.

At IRON MILL — a custom-designed, 4,000-square-foot commercial photography studio in North Point Breeze — Milliron and his workforce flip meals manufacturers into bonafide stars.

You’ve little doubt seen IRON MILL’s work in magazines and catalogs, on billboards and web sites — and whereas scrolling via social media in your cellphone. A dozen shoppers a day go to Milliron’s East End HQ to brainstorm concepts and watch their merchandise get the superstar remedy.

When I ended by on a sweltering August afternoon, Milliron was internet hosting one other desolate, but upbeat, soiree. Music blared, snacks have been plentiful and Iron City Beer flowed just like the three rivers. Lead stylist Ana Kelly fawned over a bottle of I.C. Light Mango as if she have been making ready it for a boudoir shoot.

As a 46-year-old suds-lovin’ introvert, that is the one form of social gathering I want.

Pittsburgh Brewing Co. is the most recent shopper to affix IRON MILL’s portfolio, which additionally contains GNC, Giant Eagle, Sheetz, Bruster’s Ice Cream, Sarris Candies and Courtyard Marriott. In addition to international corporations, the six-member workforce works with native eateries together with Jimmy Wan’s Restaurant & Lounge, Girasole and Pusadee’s Garden.

At IRON MILL, a Primanti Bros. sammich is taken into account a supermodel.

Milliron grew up within the Greensburg space, with a digicam in a single hand and a Turner’s Premium Iced Tea within the different. Generations of his household labored for Turner Dairy Farms, so from an early age, he knew the significance of brand name id.

Although he didn’t excel at lecturers in a conventional sense, Milliron launched a website-design firm when he was simply 13 years previous. In highschool, he labored at a photograph processing lab and parlayed that have right into a profession within the paint- and color-design business, all of the whereas snapping meals photos for native magazines together with Table and Whirl.

A decade in the past, he moved right into a vacant area in The XFactory, a century-old, industrial warehouse that’s now dwelling to a bunch of eclectic companies. Chef Kate Romane’s Black Radish Kitchen is straight throughout the corridor from IRON MILL, so lunch breaks usually embody decadent meals.

His climate-controlled studio has its personal 500-square-foot kitchen with business fryers, convection ovens, double-door fridges and walk-in freezers — so the meals on show for the paparazzi will probably be as contemporary and photogenic as doable.

Last 12 months, Milliron shut down the studio for 3 weeks to give attention to producing visuals for “Food Is Love: Plant-Based Indian-Inspired Recipes to Feel Joy and Connection” by Palak Patel, a classically educated chef, restaurant proprietor and winner of Food Network reveals “Chopped” and “Beat Bobby Flay.”

Capturing gourmand grub in all its glory isn’t simple or appetizing. Products are photographed from each conceivable angle. As quickly because the shutter clicks, the photographs are despatched to a digital darkish room for overview, however the actual magic occurs IRL.

There are a number of multipurpose units that may be manipulated to appear like something from a five-star restaurant to a comfort retailer — or your grandmother’s nation kitchen. In the adjoining 1,600-square-foot prop room, Milliron shops hundreds of high-end plates, glassware, utensils and linens, together with furnishings, vacation decorations, a fog machine, an outside grill and even a swimming pool.

In the occasion of a zombie apocalypse, I plan to experience out the tip of the world in model at IRON MILL. I’ll be in good firm. Kelly, a local of Brazil who speaks 5 languages and earned her culinary chops at Downtown’s Duquesne Club, will spend hours adjusting pickle chips and ketchup drips to create essentially the most eye-catching burger conceivable. She’s been working with Milliron so lengthy that the pair act extra like siblings. As the flashbulbs pop, they dish out equal quantities of affection and sarcasm.

The deliciously witty barbs they commerce backwards and forwards add to the inventive and familial ambiance.

“It’s a ‘Romper Room’ for the brain in a way,” Milliron says with amusing. “It’s very bustling; people are moving everywhere, different backgrounds are coming in and out, things are changing constantly. I enjoy that kind of energy. It’s cool to work with brands that are excited to work with us.”