Portrait photography can run the gamut in type and style—everything from the traditional “head and shoulders” shot to lifestyle and environmental, candid and street, glamour, boudoir, maternity sessions and much more. View some of the eye-catching portraits and photos that stopped us in our tracks this week—including a very fashionable boxer and very playful (and somewhat aggressive-looking) cat—and read the backstories on the how they were created. 

Alexis Cuarezma, a San Francisco-based sports, advertising and fashion photographer, was recently hired by boxer Mario Barrios‘s publicist to create images for the boxer’s upcoming Pay-Per-View fight on SHOWTIME.

“In addition to wanting workout images and fighter portraits of him, they also wanted some fashion images,” Cuarezma explains. “The first thing I did when I was told that was hire one of my favorite stylist from LA, Aly Morgan, to pull different looks and outfit together for the shoot. I wanted to incorporate Mario being a boxer into the fashion images, so I included images of him wrapping his hands.”

Adds Cuarezma: “I love that this image shows two sides of Mario. It was shot at 2 p.m. when the sun is highest in the sky, which is one of my favorite times to shoot. I love making images with deep saturated blue skies.”

Djokovic & Djordje, a wedding photography duo from Serbia, photographed this image of the jubilant newlyweds at a wedding hall in Valjevo.

“Due to the pandemic, the number of people who could be indoors in the ceremonial hall had been reduced to a minimum,” says Djokovic, “but the good people who work in the hall found a solution so that the others could at least see the act of the wedding—they removed the curtains.  This scene was taken right when the newlyweds exchanged their rings and wanted to share that happiness with their parents and friends who were outside the wedding hall. We were ready.”

Adds Djordje: “This pandemic has brought us new ways and situations when photographing weddings that we just have to get used to.
It was a great moment to shoot.”

Portrait photographer Kristen Kidd has been very busy as of late. Her Women’s Best Friend coffeetable book is coming out in its third volume this year and has so far raised over $17,000 for the local rescue she works with, Harley’s Haven Dog Rescue, in Perkasie, Pennsylvania. She’s also working on a new empowerment project called Rise, about individuals journeying through eating disorders, and has started providing branding photography to her portrait clients. She also continues to thrive with her family pet portrait sessions, like this one.

“People often tell me, ‘You could never photograph my cat’ or they think of photographs of cats in a myopic, posed way,” says Kidd. “I really relish discovering the personality traits of the pet that they love and want to hold onto forever and celebrate that. I love when that equates to crazy, fun and chaotic moments with cats. This was one of those moments.”

Adds Kidd: “I thrive in chaos. There’s this warm fuzzy feeling that occurs when it all comes together in a way that brings myself joy and my clients joy.  These moments are often unexpected and that joy is really what life is all about.”

Matthew Scott says this is one of his favorite photos, taken at Harmony Vineyard, Shoreham-By-Sea, England. 

“I just love the fact that the mother of the bride is giving an emotional speech and is actually wiping tears away herself as she talks about her daughter, while the flower girl is totally unaware and just having fun and being a kid. There’s always so many different little stories to a wedding day and it was great to be able to capture two sides of it in one image.”

Adds Scott: “I’m always on the look out for the non-typical things and moments at a wedding. I love to capture the little things that could easily be missed or forgotten about that build a picture of of what the whole day was like, not just tick off big parts of the day. Sometimes you also need a bit of luck from the photography gods and this was one of those moments.”

Vienna, Austria-based photographer Mati, an Rf 30 Rising Star nominee from 2020, says he loves getting creative when it comes to personal portrait work. “There’s much less pressure and I can visualize my visions and ideas better.”

This image came out of a memory Mati had from his childhood. “I always walked past this large sewing machine factory (based in a little town in Germany) on my way to school and it was one of the largest employers in the region at the time. Unfortunately, there never was an opportunity to see this large factory from the inside. In the meantime I moved to Austria and after years I found out that the factory had closed its doors forever.”

The next time he visited the city he grew up in, Mati knew he wanted to shoot there and so he went and got permission to do so.

“I was immediately immersed in the mystical atmosphere of this factory; it was very inspiring. There was this partly broken glass door that led to a bright inner courtyard and wonderful light came through the door into the otherwise rather dark hall. Since I’m always seeking that special light, I knew this was the spot. I positioned the model on the outside of the door with the back to the sun. The plants and trees behind her also cast beautiful shadows on the glass door. The milky glass made the light much softer and the dreamy effect I had hoped for and I was so happy to have brought some life back to this lost place that I passed every day on my way to school.”

Dig into our Photo of the Day archives for even more compelling imagery.