Darian Esser’s first-ever photo model was all plastic.
When she was only 8 or 9, Esser dressed up and posed her American Girl doll before stepping behind the lens of a film camera she’d swiped from her mother. The pictures are now tucked into an album as a memory of her first photo shoot.
Today, the dolls have been swapped with real-life models in sparkly, glimmering garb. That borrowed camera has long been traded for Canon and Fujifilm versions, too. Esser, 31, has built her career on creating eye-catching fashion spreads and styled shoots for brands and businesses in the Capital Region and beyond.
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“(My work) is more editorial leaning and fashion-focused,” she says. “I love color in my work, so anything that’s vibrant. If you’re scrolling on social media, something that will make you stop and look at it. That’s what I aim to do in my work.”
Esser is embracing even more color—and sparkles—as the new marketing and brand manager for Baton Rouge’s Queen of Sparkles. She stepped into the role in January, after working closely with the line under her own company, Soel Studio, for years.
Find what you love and stick to it, and the work and the fulfillment will come to you. You don’t have to move away to find that.
[Darian Esser]
Though the sequined apparel oozes inspiration for shoot setups, Esser is always trying to find new ways to make her images stand out, especially for those featuring Queen of Sparkles’ recurring holiday-themed drops and game-day collections. Esser looks to social media platforms and saves ideas to private Pinterest boards.
The artist says she first dove into her passion for photography in high school, dabbling in senior portraits and other projects. After some convincing from her parents, she decided to study photography and marketing in college. At the same time, she began booking weddings.
“Weddings weren’t really what I wanted to do,” she says. “I was really more interested in the artistic side.”
One of her first big breaks happened in college while working as a sales associate at Urban Outfitters. The retailer hired Esser to shoot the New Orleans stint of an American road-trip-themed campaign, and the final product helped lead her to more creative gigs with HerringStones boutique, The Hope Shop and other local spots.
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Though Esser’s work has since been seen nationwide, the Baton Rouge native has no plans to uproot anytime soon. When starting her career, Esser says she was told multiple times that it’d be hard to pursue fashion photography in Baton Rouge. Today, touches of the Capital Region can be found throughout her shoots. And Esser, who’s expecting her first child this month, hopes her story is an example of how creatives can find work without leaving home.
“I think Baton Rouge has a huge creative community,” she says. “I encourage people to try and grow that in Baton Rouge. … I found a way to make it happen.”
This article was originally published in the September 2024 issue of 225 Magazine.