I recently had a pleasure of shooting a newborn session for a young mom who just arrived from Zambia, with a privilege to portray the breastfeeding.
Cultural diversity and the concentration of unique photo opportunities are the clear benefits of metropolitan areas like NYC for a photographer. A few days ago I photographed maternity session for a traditional Egyptian mom-to-be with consideration for her culture where the idea of the maternity photo shoot itself is already unusual. I hope I will be able to share some beautiful images from that session but for now, here is little the pearl who has just arrived to the US with her gorgeous mom.
The session took place in the stylish Gramercy Park Hotel with an expectation of also working in the hotel’s private Gramercy Park. To our disbelief and setback, the park is off-limits for professional photography (they judge by the equipment) even if you are a guest. You can enjoy the park and freely snap away with your phone or point-and-shoot but not a DSLR. Such is policy, no other formulating answer was given. After finishing in the hotel room we took a cab to a nearby Madison Square Park.
Our beautiful client was accompanied by her sister and mother during the shoot. Going through several wardrobe changes and sleep/awake stages for this half-day newborn session, I was also given an opportunity to artistically capture breastfeeding. This was not my first such sacred portrayal, the previous one making splashes with an epic warrior’s family series.
Another memory floating around my head during this newborn session had quite a different mood and purpose—a series of commercial photo shoots for Jane Woolrich Design, a lingerie designer from the UK, that were photographed in this location. Looking at the images below, you might draw a couple of parallels with the boudoir slideshow featuring some photos from the Gramercy Park Hotel.
Click images for full size. Kindly refrain from re-uploading images to social media during the first week of feature. Share instead!
Makeup by Don Rokicki
