MARISA KANG: LILACS AND TIGERS

"My boots are cooler than yours." That was the very first thing Marisa Kang said to me the moment we met. For the record, we were both wearing the exact same pair of Ariat boots—but since Marisa is the force of nature behind the murals in the Lilacs and Tigers feature, I’ll let her have the win. That sharp, confident energy set the tone for the entire shoot.

This project was a pure lifestyle editorial for Portsmouth City Lifestyle. Unlike a standard headshot, the goal here was to show the artist in her environment, matching the scale of her work. Marisa's murals are bold, intentional, and transformative for the spaces they inhabit, so the photography needed to feel just as expansive. We spent the day exploring the relationship between her personal style and her public art, finding the "lightning in the veins" moments where the artist and the work finally clicked together in the frame.

The weather that morning was classic New England: a biting, static cold with plenty of snow on the ground, but a sky that was flat and unmoving. I wanted the images to feel alive, like the art itself. Fun fact: it wasn't actually snowing during the shoot. To give the photos a sense of movement and grit, I added the falling snow entirely in post-production. It’s a trick I use in my editorial photography in NH when I need to manufacture the atmosphere that nature forgot to provide.

By treating this as a narrative study of a muralist in NH rather than a corporate assignment, we captured something much more authentic. It’s a highlight of my architectural photography portfolio mindset because it proves that whether I’m shooting a building or the person painting a 40-foot wall, the story is always in the details—right down to the boots.