Equipped with a degree in viticulture from Oregon State University and several years experience in the wine industry, Daenitz founded wine photography and marketing company Craft & Cluster in 2019.
‘My original ambition was to be a photojournalist. I wanted to be the photography version of Andie Anderson from How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I wanted to be Annie Leibovitz, I really admire her work. I went to school in Pasadena and took a couple of photography courses but I found that the LA photography scene was a little toxic. I was looking for a job that would be a bit more collaborative and I found the wine industry. I started studying wine and viticulture and finished my degree in 2013.
‘I was working for a vineyard management company, Coastal Vineyard Care Associates, and they asked me to start a social media account for them. I dusted off my old camera and started taking it out into the fields, photographing everything that was going on. If I saw a cool insect when I was doing my pest scouting rounds, I would take a photo of it. If I saw the crews were weeding or tilling, I would take photos and post them on social media. The winery clients I was working with started noticing and asked if I could do that for them.
‘My mentor, Francesca Lindley CFO said you have something here and you would do really well if you wanted to pursue this. It put the worm in my head.
‘I left my full time job in the January and started Craft & Cluster in February 2019. The name came from a for fun Instagram account that my husband and I started to share photos of the wine, beer and spirits we were drinking. I appropriated it for the business.
‘We manage social media for six wineries. We do consulting for a couple of wineries as well. We have some one-off wineries we work with for photography, once or twice a year. I would say we work with 30-40 wineries in an average year.
‘I work in the Santa Ynez Valley but I’m only about an hour from Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo where I go frequently. I also do some work with Sonoma and Napa Valley wineries, getting to explore other wine regions has been really special. Two years ago I had the opportunity to photograph The Women in Wine Expo at Balfour in Kent.
‘I think that the beauty of the wine industry is that people really care to work with each other. A rising tide lifts all boats. I feel that’s a philosophy most wineries live by. I think wineries need community, that’s the entire point of wine.
‘I’m part of a group for women working in wine in Santa Barbara County which created the annual Women Winemakers & Culinarians Celebration. In Santa Barbara County we have the highest number of women winemakers per capita than any other wine region and we wanted to celebrate that. It’s a dubious thing to celebrate because it’s still only 20% compared to men, which is really sad for me. It’s a thing to be proud of but I wish that we had more. But every year we’re getting more and more and more and I think that’s due in large part to the annual event and to the exposure and opportunities women are getting.
‘I wouldn’t be where I am without these women, it’s as simple as that. It would have been much harder to achieve what I’ve achieved without them backing and supporting me. The vast majority of clients I’ve gained are because of women who are part of that group.
‘Pinot Noir at Midnight wouldn’t have happened without Jessica Gasca of Story of Soil. She hired me to photograph the harvest that evening and I wouldn’t have been out there in those conditions without that.
‘I’m proud of all of my work, my clients validate it every day by continuing to work with me and that means a lot but it also means a lot to have third party impartial judges [for the Wine Photographer of the Year award] look at your work. So being able to win in this category with such a prestigious award is really special and validating.
‘One of my clients, Foxen (where I had my first winery job back in 2010) hire me now as a photographer. Last year they were picking well into sunrise and they have these really sandy soils. When you’re walking you put your foot down and it’s like moondust, like gravity doesn’t exist for a minute. The vineyard workers were walking back to me down the row and all I could see was their silhouettes through the dust. The way the light was coming through in the sunrise was so beautiful. It looks like a photo of a band.
‘The last year or so I’ve been using film again which has been a lot of fun. I think that film photography and wine have a lot in common, they both require art and science combined to make them happen – alchemy, it’s magical and special. There’s a grittiness and romanticism to it, they work really well together.
‘I’ve been toying with the idea of a coffee table book or photobook or a zine for a really long time. The focus will be on women in wine, not just winemakers but also viticulturalists, tasting room managers, leaders, any woman doing any job in wine, I want to photograph them and show what they do, behind the scenes, tell their stories.
‘Looking to others for inspiration, in wine it’s helpful to look at other wine photographers but even more important to look outside of the subject you’re photographing. You look at people doing similar things too much and you get ‘house palate’, when you’re only tasting wines from the winery that you work for, you get stuck and you don’t see the variety and the creativity that’s out there in the world.
‘The last thing most winemakers want is to be photographed. If you can get out into the field with them and have conversations with them about their craft and speak from a place of knowledge, they feel a bit more comfortable and confident when they’re having their photograph taken.
‘You can absolutely succeed [in wine photography] coming from the point of a consumer’s perspective but if you really want to get in with the down and dirty with the winemakers you need to have some experience. That might be working a harvest or just going out and being out there frequently and seeing what it takes to bring a wine from field to table.’
