Pictorial Muscle: Summer Rose

By Pictorial Muscle, Studio Ink

My name is Summer Rose and I have been doing photography for three years now. I like to capture different aspects of femininity and emotion with my work. I consider these to be my best pieces.

Summer is also one of the creators of her podcast “Camp of Cult” – a lovely group of eccentric artists from Southeast Texas sharing their love of movies. Available on all podcast platforms. Anyone is interested in guest hosting the podcast, please email campofcultpodcast@gmail.com

The first photo was done for my sister’s model portfolio. We had a short amount of time to get the shots we needed and decided to go for a 90’s vibe by grabbing what we can find in our closet. Willy Burger was more than welcome to have us come in and shoot. We took these photos post-Harvey, so I was without a camera at the time an iPhone X came in “handy” to get this job done. (File name seleste1).

Title: “Hello There”
Model: Seleste Barnett
Location: Willy Burger

The second photo featured was taken during my last year in film school. It was a dark time with my school going under and being on the verge of homelessness. I had the opportunity to work on a portfolio and wanted to capture the emotions I was going through at the time.
 
A dual lighting set up with makeshift blue and pink gels overlapping each other and literally having my model lay inside of an oven I was able to get this shot while standing in her sink. This is the photo I’m most recognized for.
 
Title: “Ennui”
Model: Mackenzie Pickerel

This photo comes from one of my most spontaneous shoots. I was in Dallas and called up a fellow photographer to snag some pictures of the cityscape. She had never modeled before but was a natural in front of the camera. Normally your model is not supposed to blend in with their background, but I wanted to create something ethereal that would show off my friend’s natural beauty.
 
Title: “Cityscapes”
Model: Kaitlyn Sims

“Blue Monday”
“Creature Feature”

The next two photos come from one of my favorite shoots and collaborations since moving back to Texas. We had one day to get everything put together. The lead photographer came up with the concept of an 80s arcade shoot and we worked with the model to find an outfit from Goodwill using BnB Arcade as our location.

The first image was shot using the reflection of my model looking into a claw machine. The emotion I wanted to capture in this shot was this idea of seeking comfort from the past but realizing that comfort is no longer there.

The second image from the shoot was more light-hearted. I simply wanted to play with the lighting from the arcade machines and what I got was something from a horror movie poster. I absolutely love it and I would hope it will end up being a cover photo one day. 

Model: Kelsey Rodgers

Creative Director: Kierra Lee

Location: BnB Arcade

“Marissa”
“The Flower”

These two were from a birthday photoshoot I got to do last year. My model has a natural regalness to her and my goal was to capture the beauty in how she carries herself which helped create my best portraits. The photos really speak for themselves.

Model: Marissa Garza

The final photo is from another spontaneous shoot. I love these moments when a friend calls you up with an idea and all you have to do is grab something out of the closet, charge up the camera and go! This was taken earlier in the year during the “Snowpocalypse” of 2021. I wanted my model to look like she was laying on a frozen lake, since it’s southeast Texas and not a Nordic landscape we improvised by using a snow-covered trampoline. 

Title: “Isprinsessan”
Model: Maerwynn Bjorklund