Location Headshots: Rosy Petri

One of the pleasures of being a portrait photographer is working with incredible people. Rosy Petri, is one of those people. In addition to being an amazing artist, she lends that artistic talent to the cause of social justice. Rosy uses her art to elevate and amplify the voices of the under-represented. Among other media, Rosy creates absolutely stunning textile portraits that express soul and emotion vividly. Please, pause here and pop over to Paradise Home: The Art and Craft of Rosy Petri to view her work.

In addition to being a client, Rosy is a friend and artistic collaborator. We are currently collaborating on a project to document the stories of women leaders in our Black community. So, when she asked for a headshot session, I was deeply honored and more than happy to help!

For Rosy’s session, we decided that a formal, studio look didn’t quite align with the feeling she wanted in the portrait. After discussing and trying a few looks/locations, I started to see the portrait come together as high-contrast black and white image in my head. With that idea percolating, I found angles with strong backlighting and trees that could be blown out to background blurs with the strong sunlight filtering through. Keeping her in the shade allowed for the soft even light on her face with just enough shadow to highlight her features.

The result is a series of headshots I find engaging and that convey her strength and empathy.

As mentioned, these portraits were created with natural light. I often bring lighting equipment to location sessions in order to balance out the ambient light, but with the intent of blowing out the background, we didn’t need the extra gear here.