Can an empanada spot become a photoshoot location worthy of VOGUE?

The answer is ABSOLUTELY! In the middle of a surfer town in Costa Rica there is a Argentinian empanada spot that will blow your mind.

Angel Rutledge by Angelo D’agostino.

The production team and I were in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, shooting an editorial for Vogue Arabia, and we knew we had to make it special. So of course, our first course of action was to take a walk down the small town (its super small), and scout the local establishments were cool enough to use as a set for the photoshoot.

Suddenly, there was this yummy dough smell that lured us in, instantly a lovely couple of Argentinians welcomed us into Casa del Mar, their life’s project, and in a matter of 5 minutes it was an instant connection as if we’ve known each other forever… they were SO friendly and I instantly knew we had to work with them.

TIP: the best and most successful partnerships in production are when the chemistry is spot on.

We sat down in their rustic wooden tables, had a drink and some freshly made empanadas, and we told them all about the beauty story we were working on.

They showed us around their open air beach & sandy floor empana bar, which was also a working pizzeria & hostel for tourists that loved to surf, so it was a very tight community. 

Thankfully, our photographer has such a great eye, he spotted some of the surf boards and thought about how these would look as a portrait background. A portrait, for those who don’t know, is a photograph of a person with a specific focus on their face / head and shoulders, usually taken in a studio with flat background. This is very much used in beauty or make up editorial stories. But, since we were in this paradisiac beach town, we wanted to include some of that element to it. 

Hence… let’s grab those surf boards and use them as the background. 

It’s amazing how you can really find a creative spot, even in the most ‘unfashionable’ place of them all, even a sandy floor empanada shop.

Angela Rutledge, shot by Angelo D’Agostino, Produced by Mariana Valle-Mesen, Styled by Schanel Bakkouche, Hair by Yuhi Kim, make up by Kento Utsubo.

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