Monroe Abbey Styled Shoot

Apr 2, 2018

Who knew an old church built in 1929 would provide me with so much inspiration? It must have been six months ago when I first saw photos of the Monroe Abbey in Phoenix and in the very second those pictures took my breath away, I made a goal for myself to take pictures there. What I didn’t know at the time is that they were already planning on renovating that beautiful building to turn it into a little community center for restaurants and shops. While I am happy that there is action being taken to preserve the decaying building from completely disintegrating, part of me is kind of sad that I won’t be able to take photos here for a while.

As luck would have it, I joined a styled shoot that would be the last group of photographers allowed to shoot at the abbey before the renovation. We had to duck under archways and climb over piles of bricks to get to our locations, but it added to the charm and created a sense of adventure. We were on a mission to capture the authenticity of this old building and it was only fitting that we had to step over some crumbled materials. It also made for some interesting backgrounds and stunning portraits of couples as they nested up behind windows, cuddled in front of walls where the beautiful colored paint was peeling resulting in a ‘vintage’ effect, and my favorite – walking a catwalk of beautiful ancient architecture.

One of my favorite parts of the building is the courtyard. Where there once had been a roof that got destroyed by a fire, there was now a beautiful open-air venue that birds were flying though.

The models were stunning, each with a dress and color pallet that represented who they were as a couple. It was a blast raving over them and using this once in a lifetime opportunity to provide them with photos that will represent this time in the Abbey’s life.

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