Art and Boudoir: 10 Questions with Edi Roque

Photography - Edi Roque

Business: Art and Boudoir
Location: Los Angeles, California CA
Experience: 15 Years
Profile: Art and Boudoir
Website: www.artandboudoir.com

1. Introduction: What's your story?

I was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil. My mom is an art teacher and my father is a mathematician so I grew up surrounded by art and numbers. I started to play piano at the age of five, then guitar at the age of twelve when I also got my first film camera.

It’s safe to say that music, photography and cinematography altogether shaped who I am as a person. That also brought me to move to Los Angeles back in 2015.

Boudoir photography has been in my life even before I built and developed my career as a Fashion Editorial photographer many years ago.

Over those years I found that I could go one step further in my boudoir work and utilize my experience on fashion lighting and posing to develop a unique approach to capture my clients, which happens to be in their majority, not professional models.

The joy and fulfillment of empowering women, helping them to see themselves in a whole new way and celebrate their natural beauty while providing a life changing experience through the session are beyond words. I just knew I had to fully dedicate my photography work to that, so Art and Boudoir was born and that’s why I became a full-time boudoir photographer.

2. What is your experience shooting boudoir?

Boudoir has been in my life as a "behind the curtain" type of thing for a long time. Since the majority of my past work was Fashion Editorial, I always thought that Boudoir was just an outlet for me to help everyday women to look and feel like the models that I was shooting on a daily basis. After many years, I realized that the joy of working with "non-models" and providing a platform to them to see themselves within my art was priceless. Shooting campaigns with a big team and working hard to just help a company to sell clothes became a burden. After a while, I was no longer interested in wasting the power of photography with something so superficial. When I officially launched Art and Boudoir, the goal was to offer not only the best service and a VIP treatment to our clients but my personal goal was to also utilize all of the skills and techniques I developed for my fashion work into creating unique and remarkable images for all women.

3. Where will the photo shoot take place?

We are located in a beautiful and quiet area in Studio City. We have two beautifully designed sets: The Merlot Cabin which is a Sicilian inspired set with lots of candles, moroccan lamps, wine, plants, a custom bookshelf and a fireplace. It's a cozy little "cabin in the woods" type of space. Our other location is called the Red Room which is inspired by the Victorian French decor with a stunning king size bed with a hard-carved headboard, velvet curtains and bed sheets, beautiful vintage lamps, plants and hand-picked decor. Our goal is to make our clients feel like they are in a quick European trip without leaving LA. We also have alternative spaces like the kitchen, bathroom and currently we have an outdoor space under construction where we are designing the Jacuzzi Lounge for some beautiful natural light and immersive experience.

4. How should customers prepare for the Boudoir photo shoot?

Once a person is interested, they should simply join our waiting list on our website and from there we provide them with our Free Boudoir Guide with all the information, details and tips on how to prepare for our session. Our clients will be guided through the entire process and we pride ourselves for NOT using email automation on our communication with them. Our philosophy is that every client is unique and we dedicate ourselves to provide the best experience to all of them.

5. Will there be a hairstylist and make-up artist?

Our session includes Hair & Makeup and everything they need to feel pampered while they are listening to a personalized playlist and a table with delicious snacks and fresh drinks. It's like a spa day with memorable images at the end.

6. What do you do to make your customers feel comfortable for the shoot?

After many years as a Fashion and Boudoir Photographer, I developed a workflow that makes all women feeling glamorous and looking gorgeous. During the session I direct and guide them through every pose and a big part of my work is to allow them to embrace their natural beauty and provide a safe, judgement-free and respectful platform for them to reconnect with their bodies and fall in love with themselves again or, sometimes, for the first time.

7. Are pictures printed or do you provide a digital file?

After the session, the client takes a little break while we create a presentation for them to see the images they will like to purchase. After that we will present the available options such as wall-art, calendar, retro-viewer, folio boxes and our most popular product: flush-mount albums. We have many different packages to fit all of our customers needs and payment plan options for every budget. Our products are out-sourced from nothing but the best vendors in the business and this is the final step into making sure that the quality of our work is being fully represented in a luxurious high quality product that will last for a lifetime.

8. What happens on the day?

Once our client arrives, they will be greeted by me and my H&MUA. We will chat a little bit about how the session goes and then we will go through the outfits and lingerie options for the session. As we discuss some ideas for hair and makeup, the client has some drinks and snacks available. During makeup time, I run through some final adjustments on the lighting and setup. When we are shooting, my makeup artist will be there to help us with any retouching or adjustment needed. Our sessions are private and personal. Everything is designed to make you comfortable and have fun!

9. Where will the photographs be used?

I'm aware that showing photos from "real clients" has become a very common practice with some studios out there but at Art and Boudoir, we do NOT utilize images from clients to promote our services. Boudoir is a private and personal experience and only the client and the ones that she will choose to share their album should have access to it. With that said, we do love to create Before/After photos just to help and inspire other women into taking the step into this powerful and transforming experience but even that, only happens upon our client's contentment. I feel that it is important to have images where other women can relate and sometimes, modeling photos can create some sort of unrealistic idea of beauty. 99% of our clientele are women over 40, self-conscious about their "body issues" and it's life-changing when we start to show them the photos and they are able to see themselves and how beautiful they truly are. We laugh together, we cry together, it's an emotional experience and the last thing I would do is to spoil a moment like that just to promote my business. We proudly don't need that! All of the images on our website and social media are created with models to showcase the quality of our work without exposing our clients to the world.

10. What is your cancellation and/or refund policy?

that's the only part of our process that is automated for the safety of our clients and our own. Cancellation policy is pretty standard within a 30 day notice. We never had a refund request in all these years simply because the client is the one choosing the package and products they want to purchase but our refund policy is the same. We stand by our quality and our products 100%.