It’s Monday morning here in NYC and my bags are packed ready to fly home after a rather accidental but fantastic weekend trip to the city. Work had taken me to Nashville and the flights required a layover which for BA means NYC. So after the working week I flew back to NYC and instead of going straight home I got off the plane to see family and friends but also to take some photos.

Marisa Roper and the Empire State Building

It had been almost two months since my last shoot, a rare creative gap and by now I was feeling the drought. I often talk about needing to exercise the creative muscle and for me that is photographing people and ideally doing so with a black and white, 90’s fashion vibe. Other people play golf, or paint or ride horses etc, for me my passion is revisiting a past life working in photography and specifically trying to follow in the footsteps of some of the people who influenced me as I was growing up. Our house was filled with photography books and posters by people like Helmut Newton, Herb Ritz, Peter Lindburg, Richard Avedon and many more and this concentration of art has had a lasting effect on how I view the world.

Before arriving in NYC I had sent Marisa a mood board of ideas of looks and clothes that I thought would suit the space all with a B&W, 90’s theme (hands up, I’m a broken record). Just like our last shoot together I had organised a daylight studio but this time it commanded amazing views of Manhattan with the Empire State Building in the centre of the view.

I arrived at the studio with a few items that matched the mood board and set about getting the studio ready. Marisa burst into the room with her big personality, her first words were simply my name: “Sam Barton!” said as if she was annunciating to the back row of a big theatre.

I know Marisa as a model, but her DNA is acting, or more accurately the movie business in general as she also writes and that really comes over when she is in front of the camera.

It’s always a genuine delight shooting with Marisa, she’s fun and full of energy and you always laugh a lot. But she also works hard, she takes her role seriously and embellishes it with additional characters to really bring the image to life.

But it didn't stop there, she had taken my mood board and really ran with it. She arrived with several bags of clothes, each one hand picked to match the theme and obviously a perfect fit for her. She even brought two wonderful hats that topped off the looks we had chatted about.

I was a kid in a candy store…

We worked through each look together, a proven technique that was fluid and very collaborative. I always have music playing in the background and it was when Marisa put on the black suit and the fedora hat that we switched to Michael Jackson. Until that point the dual aspect studio was filled with a soft light from the overcast sky above NYC. But we were suddenly treated to blue skies and importantly beautiful direct light that created light wells from the windows on the white floor.

As Billy Jean played out, Marisa took center stage and was quickly moonwalking into the light and matching those signature moves, tossing her jacket tails behind her and pulling at her black hat like it was her center of gravity.

We took so many awesome shots together that Saturday afternoon, but it was these musically inspired ones that stayed with me the most and were the first ones I chose to edit.

As is always the way, the shoot ended too soon so as we were both packing up we agreed to go and have a coffee together to catch up without the pressure of a camera. Below the studio was a small coffee shop that was just big enough for the two of us and our many bags.

It was a curious place as the floor space was tiny but due to the vast ceiling height its cubic square footage was massive. This is only relevant as Marisa and I both enjoy a loud conversation and we definitely filled the room with our boisterous chat.

The lady behind the counter was treated to Marisa talking in various accents (her acting portfolio coming alive) with a particular trend towards the British accent as she delighted in copying my accent. I was an Englishman in New York and Marisa was doing her part to match that song also.

We parted company and I headed back to the borders of Brooklyn where I was staying with my family. This was a quick pit stop to drop off my things as I was due to meet with Kate Snig who I last saw in Malta back in May. Kate had seen that I was in Nashville and asked if I had plans to visit NYC which of course I did so we had to find a way to meet up, even if it was just for a catch up drink.

Kate and I met in a trendy part of Williamsburg and talked through the past few months since we last saw each other. It was Kate who suggested we shoot together the next day and we discussed a few ideas.

Kate had wanted to shoot on location and in particular in the subway, she shared some shots that inspired her and this reminded me of a place that Marisa had recommended to me previously. It was a subway made from beautiful contrasting tiles and a network of pipes for the roof.

After doing some research I was hooked on the place and was therefore very disappointed when Marisa and I had to postpone our location shoot due to the Canadian wildfires filling NYC with an orange smog and very bad air quality. As it turned out our studio shoot was awesome so I shouldn’t complain, but this location was an itch I wanted to scratch and with Kate in town I suddenly saw the opportunity.
Kate is anchored in so much creativity that she quickly understood what I saw in this location. She agreed that a black vintage dress was needed but wanted to add her own take on it, imagine the photo of Dovima with Elephants by Ricard Avedon.

The next day we agreed to meet at my cousin's apartment which is beneath the Empire State Building, A place for Kate to do her hair pre-shoot, but is also an interesting location in itself. At the top of the building is a flat roof that overlooks the Manhattan skyline with the vast monolith of ESB towering above.

The sun was going down so we shot upstairs to the roof and used the sunset to our advantage. I am very fortunate that Kate also enjoys my fondness for the 90’s and in this case we both aligned on Helmut Newton and his take on NYC for our shoot upon the roof. Having an inspo photo to reference is useful at agreeing on a sense of direction but in practice those ideas are not meant to be perfectly matched. After we climbed the stairs and breathed in the mighty view we quickly understood the unique opportunity and made it our own. Kate managed three outfit changes on the cold roof that October evening and each look transported us back in time to a place that we both enjoyed being part of.

The vastness of Manhattan surrounded us and we were overlooked by countless high rise buildings, each one with a perfect view of our location but Kate was not perturbed. She relished the moment and was soon just in tights and heels and with the wind in her hair and a devil may care attitude found in the books we both favored.

We completed the final outfit as the sun went behind the buildings and conscious the next location and look required some major hair work we went inside. Tomomi, who is married to my cousin Zach made us some green tea to warm us up and Kate sat crossed legged in their bathroom so she could use their full length mirror to architect her hair into a shape that would make Princess Anne proud. Her next trick was pulling on a long black vintage dress from her bag that Tomomi helped her into. We were suddenly in the presence of royalty and the audience uttered a quiet “wow” in unison.

We thanked our hosts and made our way to the nearest subway to travel the three stops to this mythical underground location. New York subways are a bit of a challenge to find at the best times but the entrance to this one was particularly challenging thanks to the scaffolding that surrounded it. However, as soon as we descended the short flight of stairs it was clear we had found our destination. We both looked at each other knowing immediately how best to use this urban canvas. That unspoken word is why I enjoy working with people who are inherently creative, it speeds up a creative process that is often rushed by passersby but importantly is a silent acknowledgment that we are both on the same page. We were about to have a great time shooting in this tunnel.

I switched to a wide angle lens that pulled the long lines into the center of the frame and Kate took her place as head of state. Her refined poses were inspirational and admired by the commuters who rushed past us in between trains.

We had to shoot in small bursts so as to ensure our background wasn’t filled with people but Kate was her professional self and made each precious frame count as we stepped through the different views this wonderful place afforded us. Our last set was shot on the stairs leading down onto the platform. Kate completed the regal look by sitting side saddle on the metal railing that divided the stairs and made the pose look completely natural despite the slippery fabric of her dress wanting to turn the moment into a fairground dash onto the platform below.

Kate was still full of energy and wanted to carry on, listing exciting ideas of how to use the platform and people as a backdrop, but I called it. It was late and we both deserved a glass of wine. The ideas would have to wait until next time.

Above ground I searched for the nearest bar, a three minute walk by foot. Perfect! Once in the entrance a large bearded gentleman asked us for ID and we made our way in. Kate parked at the first table and I went to order our drinks. Two very camp chaps were eager to help, Kate’s red wine (the only wine in the building) was served in a plastic cup and my beer came in the original bottle. I returned to our seat and we joked about the fun mood of the place, putting the flamboyant atmosphere down to the halloween decorations. A few minutes later, two fabulous looking men in wigs and thongs walked in and took over the place, they were clearly the act and it was suddenly obvious we were merely players. Kate and I laughed at each other, OF COURSE we were in a gay bar, how did we not work that out before??

We both talked seriously about staying and enjoying this unique moment. But we also wanted wine served in a glass and the ability to have a quiet (and less explicit) chat. We moved across the road to a bar that could have been found in Paris and relaxed clutching a proper glass of chardonnay.

It had been a fun and very productive day and a great way to cap off a brilliant weekend of shooting again. My two month creative hiatus had been well and truly addressed and I now had a war chest of photos to edit thanks to working with the wonderfully talented Marisa and Kate on both days of the weekend.

I am a firm believer in fate, so much has happened in my life that I cannot ignore it. These precious two days were a perfect example and only happened due to me deciding to extend what would have been a 3 hour layover in NYC. But what I perhaps like the most is that my final shooting location was one that Marisa had suggested to me and was only scrapped due to Canadian wildfires but later revisited with my Canadian friend Kate.

Creativity can be curated but good fortune like these events has to be attributed to one's own destiny.

New York Revisited

Tutorial: The perfect hard light set up for studio portraits

Salt Pans of Gozo