Celeste Gaiera // Fort Worth, TX

Since this project has been entirely self-funded, I have tried to piggy-back work trips with Hasselblad Ballet photo shoots. Such was this case, where I was visiting Fort Worth, TX, to photograph a client and his artist.

Said client put me up in the Texican Hotel, a boutique hotel, and one of the coolest I’ve had the opportunity to stay in. Needless to say, when I saw their hotel lobby, I just had to photograph a ballerina. Celeste was a ballerina that I had actually photographed 7 months previously, but due to some faulty Ilford HP5 roll film, I was never happy with those images. I knew they wouldn’t make the eventual book, so I told her that I’d love to re-shoot one day. 

The only availability I had to shoot was at 7am, and thankfully Celeste was up for it for our re-shoot. As mentioned, this lobby was beautiful in its uniquely Americana-way. The shelves and decoration in this room were unlike any other hotel I’ve ever stayed at. 

A long-standing rule I have in this project is that I’m not in it to photograph solely a “beautiful woman”, but rather, it needs to be a ballerina. So any instance where I don’t showcase the ballerina’s prowess, I have to somehow indicate that the featured woman is a ballerina, be it in the positioning of her hands, or a faint nod to ballet. In this case, the pointe shoes placed behind her served that subtle function. 

I only get to photograph most ballerinas in this project once, the nature of the project now putting me in physical proximity with them more than once; but when I can get a re-shoot, I’ll happily take it, even if I have to wake up at 6am and skip my morning coffee. 

May 6, 2021