Cherry Li is a food photographer and director who has been specialising in food and drink for over 10 years. After a decade of having had home bases in Hong Kong, Beijing, Paris, and Los Angeles, while Cherry is delighted to travel anywhere on assignment, she is excited to create delicious imagery for new and existing clients from Boulder, Colorado, where she has just started her new studio, surrounded by the Rockies and local farms where the freshest ingredients can be sourced. 

Cherry's unique visual sensitivity and a keen eye for detail has won her multiple professional awards and gained her clients such as Anchor New Zealand, Lady M, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveller, GQ, Malaysia Airlines, Dragonair, Wall Street Journal, Theme, Wallpaper, The Cleaver Quarterly, Qatar Airways, British Airways and Australian Gourmet Traveller.

Cherry Li's keen eye for food photography is a natural pairing of her gourmandise with her dedication. Upon receiving her BFA in photography from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, she started travelling the world in search of authentic food stories. After years in France, Cherry now divides her time between China and California, both the homes of her childhood. 

Cherry's unique visual sensitivity and keen eye for detail has won her multiple professional awards and gained her clients such as Anchor New Zealand, Lady M, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveller, GQ, Malaysia Airlines, Dragonair, Wall Street Journal, Theme, Wallpaper, The Cleaver Quarterly, Qatar Airways, British Airways and Australian Gourmet Traveller.

Cherry Li found her passion for food photography through her profound love of food. In 2006, immediately after receiving her BFA in photography from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, Cherry moved to Paris to eat.

Soon after, she began experimenting with food in the studio, leading up to her current long term documentary projects featuring foods from non-mainstream cultures across the world.

She now finds herself travelling in China, California, Hong Kong and anywhere her assignments take her.

Cherry's unique visual sensitivity and keen eye for detail have won her multiple professional awards and gained her clients such as Anchor New Zealand, Lady M, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveller, GQ, Malaysia Airlines, Dragonair, The Wall Street Journal, Theme, Wallpaper, The Cleaver Quarterly, Qatar Airways, British Airways and Australian Gourmet Traveller.

At age 13, Cherry Li picked up a camera and hasn’t put it down since. Fuelled by her passion to turn any mundane situation into an interesting story, Cherry went on to pursue a BFA in Photography from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Upon graduation, she moved to Paris to shoot fashion but ended up feeding a secret passion for food.

After more than a decade and a few moves across the globe, Cherry founded Cherry Food Studios, which is the only studio in Hong Kong to focus exclusively on food photography and video. She is constantly on on the road to wherever the assignment requires.

Her unique visual sensitivity and keen eye for detail has won her multiple professional awards and gained her clients such as Anchor New Zealand, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveller, GQ, Malaysia Airlines, Dragonair, Wall Street Journal, Theme, Wallpaper, The Cleaver Quarterly, Qatar Airways, British Airways and Australian Gourmet Traveller.

From the age of 13, Cherry Li devoted herself to the art of photography, brewing magic in the darkroom as soon as she could escape school each day. After completing her BFA in photography from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, she started travelling the world in search of visual stories.

She found her second love, food, while living in Paris. From then on, it has been a whirlwind of adventures in learning and telling authentic stories of people through the food they eat.
Cherry has won multiple awards and shot for numerous commercial and editorial clients, such as Anchor New Zealand, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveller, GQ, Malaysia Airlines, Dragonair, Wall Street Journal, Theme, Wallpaper, The Cleaver Quarterly, Qatar Airways, British Airways and Australian Gourmet Traveller.

Cherry is as fun to work with in the studio as she is in the wild - anywhere in the world. She is currently working on some personal documentary projects looking at food cultures from across the world, including one on rural Creole Mardi Gras food, and another on foraged Chinese food.

Cherry Li's devotion to food photography is a natural union of her obsession with image-making and love of eating. After completing her BFA in photography from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, she started travelling the world in search of visual and culinary inspiration, but stayed in France for four years before moving on to Asia.

Cherry's meticulous attention to deliciousness and mastery of lighting has won her multiple professional awards and garnered the attention of numerous commercial and editorial clients, such as Anchor New Zealand, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveller, GQ, Malaysia Airlines, Dragonair, Wall Street Journal, Theme, Wallpaper, The Cleaver Quarterly, Qatar Airways, British Airways and Australian Gourmet Traveller.

Cherry now bounces between Hong Kong and Los Angeles, and is always excited to shoot elsewhere.

From the age of 13, Cherry Li has devoted herself to the art of photography, spending all her time in the darkroom as soon as she could escape school each day. After completing her BFA in photography from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, she started travelling the world in search of visual inspiration. She found her second love, food, while living in Paris. From then on, photographing food became a natural union of her obsession with photography and love of eating.

In the ensuing 10 years, Cherry has won multiple awards and shot for numerous commercial and editorial clients, such as Anchor New Zealand, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveller, GQ, Malaysia Airlines, Dragonair, Wall Street Journal, Theme, Wallpaper, The Cleaver Quarterly, Qatar Airways, British Airways and Australian Gourmet Traveller.

Cherry now bounces between Hong Kong and Los Angeles, and is always excited to shoot elsewhere.

Cherry Li / Cherry Food Studios is the premier space in Hong Kong dedicated to creating drool-worthy imagery. Cherry's keen eye and passion for eating allow her to translate light and shadow into aromas and textures, while her studio's kitchen set-up houses multiple sets and food prep stations to cater to every food shoot scenario.

Brands and publications include Anchor New Zealand, Sunny Idea, Dining Concepts, Okra HK, Honbo, Black Sheep, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveller, GQ, Malaysia Airlines, Dragonair, Wall Street Journal, Theme, Wallpaper, The Cleaver Quarterly, Qatar Airways, British Airways and Australian Gourmet Traveller.

Cherry Li is the only commercial photographer and director in Hong Kong specialising exclusively in food. Her technical acuity allows her to translate light and shadow into aromas and textures, while her keen eye for detail has garnered praise from clients and earned her international awards.

However, Cherry's greatest obsession in image-making is drawing an audience to the stories the food tells. Ask her about her mini-documentary series on Chinese food stories!

Brands and publications include Anchor New Zealand, Sunny Idea, Dining Concepts, Okra HK, Honbo, Black Sheep, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveller, GQ, Malaysia Airlines, Dragonair, Wall Street Journal, Theme, Wallpaper, The Cleaver Quarterly, Qatar Airways and British Airways.

Cherry Li is the only commercial photographer and director in Hong Kong specialising exclusively in food.

In 2006, immediately after receiving her BFA in photography from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, Cherry moved to Paris to chase her love of food - a passion that has only deepened since moving from Paris to Greater China.

She now divides her time between her studio in Hong Kong and her long-term documentary project on food stories from ethnic minorities in China. She is also excited to be in other parts of the world where she can obsess over the nuances of conveying flavors through images.

Brands and publications include Anchor New Zealand, Sunny Idea, Dining Concepts, Okra HK, Honbo, Black Sheep, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveller, GQ, Malaysia Airlines, Dragonair, Wall Street Journal, Theme, Wallpaper and The Cleaver Quarterly, Qatar Airways and British Airways.

Cherry Li is a food photographer and food video director in Hong Kong and Beijing. In 2006, immediately after receiving her BFA in photography from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, Cherry moved to Paris to chase her love of food.

In 2012, Cherry's passion for experiencing the depth of every Chinese cuisine propelled her to move to Beijing. She now divides her time between her studios in Beijing and Hong Kong, and eating and shooting through Asia on assignment.

Publications include Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveller, GQ, Malaysia Airlines, Dragonair, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Wall Street Journal, Theme, Wallpaper and The Cleaver Quarterly.

See more work on Cherry's website.

Cherry Li is a food photographer and food video director in Hong Kong and Beijing. In 2006, immediately after receiving her BFA in photography from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, Cherry moved to Paris to chase her love of food. In 2012, Cherry's passion for experiencing the depth of every Chinese cuisine propelled her to move to Beijing. Now Cherry divides her time between her studios in Beijing and Hong Kong, and eating and shooting through (mostly) Asia on assignment.

Publications include Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveller, GQ, Malaysia Airlines, Dragonair, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Wall Street Journal, Theme, Wallpaper, and The Cleaver Quarterly.

Cherry Li is a food photographer and food video director. In 2006, immediately after receiving her BFA in photography from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, Cherry moved to Paris to chase her love of food.

In 2012, Cherry's passion for experiencing the depth of every Chinese cuisine propelled her to move to Beijing. She now divides her time between her studios in Beijing and Hong Kong, and travelling through (mostly) Asia on assignment.

At the age of 13, magic came into Cherry Li’s life in the form of a blurry tree emerging on a white piece of paper submerged in a tub of liquid developer. Frozen in that moment, in her dorm-kitchen converted-darkroom in suburban California, Cherry knew it would be her life’s obsession to find magic in every mundane situation - and share that magic with the world. If she wasn’t sleeping, she was shooting; if she wasn’t shooting, she was printing; if she wasn’t printing, she was sleeping!

Immediately after graduating from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Cherry moved to Paris to pursue beauty and fashion photography. It was there, in her second home, that she found her life’s second obsession: food. Cooking and eating started to invade the time that she used to spend sleeping.

In 2012, when she moved to China to devote herself to shooting personal projects, she realised just how dear and personal eating was, and thus slowly allowed her palate to join her palette, to create a style of food photography that is intimate, delicious, and full of magic in every detail.