Jeremy Charles Photography + Design

On a unseasonably warm winter afternoon, the spritely Choctaw singer/songwriter Samantha Crain came to the studio to shoot some new promo portraits to accompany her upcoming release “You, Understood.” (Release Party on May 28th at Cain’s Ballroom)Samantha is a special artist to me, so I put extra energy toward thinking about concepts. One was this multiple exposure effect. No photoshop on the exposure, it’s a feature on the Nikon camera. We played with this one for a while because it was so fun. Normally I don’t reuse ideas, but I see a series in my future…

Samantha’s music is flavored with folk/Americana, though the new album is decidedly indie rock. I really enjoy of pulling out personality in my photos. Samantha can seem shy at times, but has a fun loving quirky personality.

Then we went for classic despair. I gathered some dead limbs from and built a vignette by clamping them to stands.

I prefer the contrast of the versions below.

Because a lot of her image was anchored in a bucolic setting up to now, I wanted to go more urban, lonely, brooding. Below, she’s at the Tulsa Greyhound station, far from a placid field or farmhouse.