The Two Fridas: Creative Portraits Inspired by Frida Kahlo – 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

Models @maria_arbizu @colleen__barnes

Backdrops @ultravioletbackdrops

Event @shotatcolorpop

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A BEHIND THE SCENES VIDEO!

When coming up with concepts for our photo shoots at Colorpop, Ashley and I are often inspired by art history, fashion editorials, movies and TV, interior design, sculpture, and other forms of art.

Ashley recently went to Mexico for Day of the Dead and left feeling so inspired by Frida Kahlo’s work and life. For Colorpop, we wanted to think about Frida’s style and reimagine it in our own, modernized way. Almost like, “what would Frida wear if she was alive today?“

We decided to cast two models as a nod to the painting of hers titled “The Two Fridas.” We leaned into maximalism for the wardrobe styling, mixing patterns, bright colors, and layers of jewelry and accessories reminiscent of Frida’s personal style and Mexican influences.

We did two different braided hairstyles for the models, a braided crown and looped pigtail braids incorporating ribbon bows, and we did a smokey eye makeup look on both of them.

We chose a few different hand painted textured backdrops to create a painting-to-come-to-life feeling. The below self portrait of Frida inspired us to make a leaf backdrop by hot gluing layers of artificial leaves and palm fronds to a wooden board for close up portraits, which we held up behind the models during the shoot.

We had our models pose just like The Two Fridas painting, and then get creative with other poses both together and solo. It was really fun to see how the photographers that attended got creative with the props and backdrops, as everyone’s compositions turned out so different.

Here are my shots from both weekends of our event!