Picture Perfect

Richard Duval's award-winning photography captures Pacific Northwest wine country at its most beautiful

By Greg Norton

Years ago, I shared my plan to write about wine with a friend.

“I envy you,” he replied, which surprised me since he rarely drank. “Wine only grows in beautiful places.”

Northwest wine photographer Richard Duval has spent nearly two decades visiting and documenting some of those locales. One of his photos recently earned international recognition with a third-place prize at this year’s World Food Photography Awards, placing an Oregon vineyard among some of the world’s most beautiful places.

STORIES BROUGHT TO LIFE

Founded in the UK by Caroline Kenyon in 2011, the competition is one of the world's top photographic contests, receiving over 120,000 entries from more than 100 countries this year. Open to professional and amateur photographers, the awards have more than 30 categories, spanning images of food grown in the field to its role at religious festivals and family tables.

According to Kenyon, “Our goal is to bring global food narratives to life: whether the beauty or the drama of food, feast or famine, weddings or food aid.” An international panel of judges, led by acclaimed food photographer David Loftus, selects winners each year.

EARLY ONE MORNING

Duval’s winning “Louis Jadot Wine Photographer of the Year: Places” submission catches the sun rising over Cabernet Franc grapes awaiting harvest at Seven Hills Vineyard in Milton-Freewater. As he returned to his car following an early-morning shoot, the light caught Duval’s eye. “The sun was just hitting, and its rays were particularly compelling,” he recalls. Ten minutes of sequential shooting, followed by some light digital editing, produced the winning image.

After earning degrees in journalism, marketing and communications, he worked in public relations for decades. The wine bug hit when he was hired to write promotional copy at Woodinville’s Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery.

Duval felt a renewed excitement about photography following a walk through a Red Mountain vineyard in Washington. “I had told myself to put the camera down, and suddenly I experienced this rush of adrenaline,” he remembers. “By the time I got back home, I had it all worked out in my head: I’m going to be a wine photographer.”

A digital revolution in the stock photography industry eventually prompted him to go freelance. “I just started knocking on winery doors,” Duval recounts. He was confident his professional background offered potential clients more than just pretty pictures.

700,000 IMAGES LATER

Based in Walla Walla, Duval provides a broad range of winery photo services, from studio bottle shots and staff portraits to on-location projects. And his work is widely featured in wine marketing materials, as well as regional and national wine media, including Wine Business Monthly and Wine Spectator.

His prize-winning image is an example of Duval’s artistic eye when not on assignment. Echoing the beliefs held by regional winemakers, he seeks to faithfully depict what the vineyard gives– adopting a conservative approach to digital manipulation. “I bring out what I know is there,” he explains. “This is what the light did. I just tried to enhance it.”

Duval custom-prints select images on metal, canvas and lustre papers, ready for display in a home, tasting room or cellar. He has a line of greeting cards and his “Art from the Vine” exhibit has been staged in venues around the region.

Future projects include a coffee table book that draws on his library of over 700,000 images and essays written by industry friends Duval has met in vineyards and cellars over the years.

“Most of the people I’ve worked with in wine are really smart; they’re driven, knowledgeable, passionate and could make more money doing almost anything else,” he observes.

“Why wouldn’t I want to hang out with them?”

See more of Duval’s work at winepix.net.

See all the contest winners at worldfoodphotographyawards.com/finalists-gallery-2026.

Greg Norton is a freelance writer with a broad background in nonprofit communications and the arts. He studied journalistic writing through the UCLA Extension and has traveled to wine regions around the world. Greg is a Certified Specialist of Wine and received the Level II award from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust. When not writing about wine, he can be found pouring it in the tasting room at Campbell Lane Winery near West Linn. Read more by Greg at onthevine.blog.