The Dance: Henri Matisse Inspired 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

Makeup @amyjomua @sandracfernandez

Hair @byabimarie_ @bbrbeautybyreese @hairbyrebeccam

Models @caitlynhansen_ @thetiffhiguchi @c.cerekson.2

Event @shotatcolorpop

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A BEHIND THE SCENES VIDEO!

The inspiration for this photo shoot comes from Henri Matisse’s painting The Dance, which is a painting known for its bold colors and themes of unity and harmony, with figures holding hands, dancing together in a circle.

We decided to bring it to life by hiring contemporary dancers as models and going to locations with lots of room for them to frolic – we started at the sand dunes but also went to this big open field with rolling hills.

We mimicked Matisse’s style of painting figures by dressing each of them head to toe in a different solid color, using his work as a color palette when selecting wardrobe. We went for a more natural makeup look and some different pulled back, braided hairstyles so the main focus could really be on the shapes and movements of the dancers.

Of our 10 shoot concepts, this one definitely required some of least amount of hands-on work (and by that I mean, we didn’t have to build any props or set pieces like we did for our other concepts), but it still turned out SO dreamy.  Some of my favorite shots were when they danced along the crest of the sand dunes.

Here are my shots from both weekends of our event!