Last fall I got one of those fun emails – songwriter, singer and instrumentalist Belinda Esquer got in touch about doing portraits for her new album “The Girl”. I love these kinds of projects because it gives me a chance to collaborate with other artists to create something that helps express themselves in an interesting way.
I met with Belinda and discovered she was very laid back and open to a lot of different ideas. At the time, she was still recording her new album and was searching for a visual theme to help bring it all together. We decided to start with photos that would be on the inside of an album cover or CD booklet. We wanted to tell a story of her, as a performer, in a room alone writing a song, searching for inspiration or unwinding from a show.
We did the shoot on location at the Hotel Congress to give it more of a authentic look. Hotel Congress has a rich history and is a very unique place. It has a ton of character which, as a photographer, I love. The one downside, if you could call it that, is that since it was built so long ago, the rooms are a smaller and more compact than the standard hotel rooms are today.
This became our biggest challenge because by the time we got a hair and makeup artist in there with an assistant and a studio light into the room it was really crowded. Add to that trying to avoid reflections and glare from mirrors and windows and it became a real challenge but thanks to some good teamwork we made it happen.
We shot several looks but my lasting memory will be photographing Belinda, in a little, tiny white bathroom, trying to shoot around the sink and the the toilet, with my assistant leaning in from outside the bathroom and holding a light overhead because there wasn’t enough room to get all 3 of us in there.
End the end, Belinda elected to go another creative direction for the album art and didn’t use these photos – but I love how they turned out and I enjoyed the opportunity to work with this very talented artist. Check out her new album “The Girl” here or learn more about Belinda and her music here.
Model: Belinda Esquer
MUAH: Kristopher Osuna of Perfection Artistry
Assistant: Daniel Ford
