new mexico
beauty queens
TURQUOISE
& COWBOY BOOTS
"Turquoise & Cowboy Boots"...that was the theme of the collaborative shoot in Old Town Albuquerque that paired a bevy of beauty queens with some of New Mexico's finest photographers to create striking images the queens could use for pageant advertising and promotion.
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--Dave Stabley
It was February 8th, a beautiful, sunny, Saturday afternoon at the plaza in Old Town - Albuquerque, NM. I can't tell you how many photographers were in attendance, but my guess is about 10, and they were not there to photograph the historic San Felipe de Neri mission opposite the square. They had all come to shoot 15 or more reigning queens and candidates in the:
Mrs, Ms, Miss New Mexico & Miss NM World United States Pageants.
This incredible collaboration of beauty queens and professional photographers was the creative brainchild of Mitch Tillison, founder and admin of the Facebook group "Collaborative Photo Shoots New Mexico" along with Stefanie Williams Poulin and Dacia Rutske, independent producers and directors of the New Mexico United States Pageants.
The shooting plan was simple, each photographer would team up with one of the pageant candidates, select a spot with the proper background and light for the shots, and get the best pictures possible in 30 minutes. At the end of the cycle, the photographer and model return to the square and pair up with another.
The shoot was scheduled for three hours, and as I mentioned earlier, there were 15 or so beauties to shoot. If you do the math, you may conclude that it wouldn't be possible to do all 15, and you would be right. I was only able to shoot eleven. Thankfully, the ones I wasn't able to get to, were being shot by the other photographers
After the session, the pageant queens went back to practicing for the big competition, and the photographers retired to their computers to edit the best of their captures for each model.
I wish I could show the some of the other photographer's images, but for this issue, that isn't possible. Trust me when I tell you, they are incredible works of art.
Katherine Frick
Brittney Muñoz