Closeup: Vintage Vogue Inspired Creative Portraits – Colorpop 2023

If you haven’t heard of our portfolio-building event COLORPOP for photographers – you’re missing out!!! I’m so excited to start blogging each of the 10 photo shoots we organized for our event as a way to share a little bit more of the planning and behind the scenes process. Plus, these shoots were so cool that they deserve to live somewhere other than Instagram.

Colorpop Portfolio Weekend 2023 took place April 28-30 and May 5-7; over these two weekends, 40 photographers of all skill levels and backgrounds traveled from around the world to Utah. This year, our event was more like a retreat – we all stayed together in a big house, ate together, had educational activities in the evenings, and made lifetime friends and connections. Honestly, it felt like summer camp for photographers – and as a retired camp counselor, it was totally my jam. 😉

For more information on our events, CLICK HERE. We’d love to have you attend one in the future! Now let’s get into this concept.

Photography & Creative direction @marinawphoto

Art direction & styling @artdeptcreative

Production @alicebestie

Assistant @sunnyjeephoto

Makeup @amyjomua @sandracfernandez

Hair @byabimarie_ @bbrbeautybyreese

Model @kyliekatich @carina.j_

Event @shotatcolorpop

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A BEHIND THE SCENES VIDEO!

For this creative portrait shoot, we wanted to recreate the covers of Vogue Magazine from the 50s and 60s, many of which consisted of tight closeup shots and amazing hats of different styles. To put our own twist on the idea, we decided to do some pattern-on-pattern styling by using the same material for the garment the model wears that the backdrop was made of.

To do this, we bought a lot of fun, colorful plaid fabric that looked a little retro, and our assistant Maiya started working on sewing the panels together to make a piece wide enough for a backdrop. For the garment, we decided on a wrap that the model could wear over her shoulders and around her face similar to the below Vogue cover, but lining the inside with solid red for a little pop of color to stand out against all the patterns.

To create as much variety as possible, we wanted to bring plenty of hat options to swap out in between shots. We thrifted a few at vintage stores, got some lookalike options from Amazon, and even spray painted some hats the colors we wanted.

At the shoot, we started with our two lovely models on the pattern backdrop wearing the wrap, and got creative with using the fabric in different ways. Halfway through, we switched out the pattern backdrop for royal blue curtains and a pink outfit.

Here are my shots from both weekends of our event!