Suspended in Color: Hanging Installation Editorial Photo Shoot – 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 @Maiyabuck

Makeup @amyjomua @sandracfernandez

Hair @byabimarie_ @hairbyrebeccam

Models @eeshablogs @avanderton @kendelleee

Wardrobe @thekit @jayleycollection

Event @shotatcolorpop

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A BEHIND THE SCENES VIDEO!

Our goal for this shoot was to create a hanging installation in studio made of voile fabric. To create more dimension, we wanted to have multiple layers of colorful material that the models could interact with, like hide behind, peek through, and stand in front of.

To help us with this project, we brought in our friend Maiya who has lots of sewing experience, and she got to work cutting the panels to the proper lengths and hemming them. We had her sew some upholstery cording at the bottom of each panel to add weight so the fabric wouldn’t blow around at the shoot too much from the AC.

On the day of the shoot, our Art Director Ashley set up four C-stands and brought pieces of wood to help assemble everything. She drilled holes in them to fit the top of the C stands and installed curtain hooks to hold the rods that had the panels hot glued to them.

We had our models dressed in colorful wardrobe that contrasted against the fabric and did an outfit change halfway through, and we did some fun hair and makeup too. We shot them together and then had them model separately, and some of my favorite shots were when they were hidden behind the fabric or peeking through it. The texture just photographed so well and it was fun to get creative with additional fabric we brought too.

Here are my shots from both weekends of our event!