Meet Edsger | Beauty headshot and fashion photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Edsger and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Edsger, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
That’s a great question. It’s interesting that there are no clear guidelines for making the most important decisions in life, like getting married, having kids, or picking a profession. We tend to make those decisions out of passion, and because choosing anything else would not make us happy. My passion is in beauty portrait and fashion photography, and I convinced myself that if I do this right, the business cannot fail to succeed, eventually. It is of course still a tough business to break into because there is so much competition in a town like LA. Yet the opportunities are also unlike anywhere else. I love being able to create those beautiful, quiet portraits that can stop you in your tracks, and those gorgeous dynamic fashion shots. I do believe that I can do this better than anyone else. If I want to see if I spent my time well on a particular day, I look at the photos I created, and I know I made the right choice.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
In my beauty portraits I try to create a very calm and quietly confident look. I often use just a single light source to create it. A single light, a good camera, and most importantly a lot of patience to wait for those magical moments where everything falls in place. Together with the model I look at each image we create on a large monitor in the studio. When the magic strikes, it is easy to recognize, but achieving it can take time changing small details in pose and lighting. Of course, compared to a master painter like Leonardo da Vinci, who spent years perfecting a painting, the time spent in a portrait session is still miniscule. Although I now also teach courses in beauty headshot and fashion photography, I learn new things everyday by talking to other photographers and looking at their work. And like everyone else, I still make mistakes. The mistakes are the opportunities we have to learn, and sometimes a mere mistake can be a revelation, like for instance when one of my strobe lights randomly failed and I accidently created the most beautiful silhouette. Ever since then, shooting silhouettes has become part of most of my photo sessions. Curiosity may kill the cat, but it brings life to an artist.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My all-time favorite place to visit in LA is Venice Beach. I’ve been going there for many years and I’m never disappointed. Rent a bike and ride the boardwalk for as far as you can go. The billboards on Sunset Boulevard are also an inspiration. And, since I’m a photographer I have this quiet hope that someday I will see one of my own photos featured on one of them. I also love spending time in the old town, around Olvera Street and admire the classic architecture of places like Union Station.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
For fashion shots I love creating dynamic shots with lots of movement. This style of fashion photography was first perfected by Richard Avedon in the fifties. Another great photographer who used this was Philippe Halsman. Some of his images are documented in his wonderful Jump Book published in 1959. Have you ever seen a photo of Richard Nixon or Robert Oppenheimer jumping? Well, the images are in this book, and it shows how persuasive a great photographer can be. The portraits of Arnold Newman, Yousuf Karsh, Irving Penn, Edward Steichen and Edward Weston also inspire me greatly. One of my proudest possessions is a vintage print of an amazing portrait of a boxer by Steichen. There’s of course an even longer history of portraiture from before the invention of photography. Leonardi da Vinci, painted only a few portraits of women, with of course the most famous hanging in the Louvre in Paris. If you study his portraits, though, you notice that they break all the rules most of us follow today in portrait photography. In Leonardo’s portraits there are often no catch-lights in the eyes, and there are hints of dark circles under the eyes of the model. Perfection sometimes lies in those little bits of imperfection.

Website: https://edsger-studio.com

Instagram: @edsger.studio

Image Credits
Portraits of: Elyse Jealette (@elysejealette on ig), Izi Aragon (@iziaragon on ig), Jessica Gomez (@jessicagomezreal3 on ig), and Que Brandon (@quebrandon_official on ig) Fashion shots of: Alyssa Taylor (green dress, @lyssatay on ig), Brianna Catrice (pink dress, @briannacatrice on ig), Katherine Kiss (pink jacket, @katherine_kis.s on ig), and Ashley (yellow bodysuit, @tatasfornow on ig) Horizontal photos: Meco Velez (green, @mecovelez on ig)) Rimi (seated on bench @rimi_b._ on ig)