Marriott Marquis and Beaux Arts Miami boutique hotels

Mike Butler’s latest photography project, the Marriott Marquis and Beaux Arts Miami, shows once again how carefully studied angles along with extensive and specialized lighting techniques allow for the creation of state of the art images while shooting high end architectural spaces.

Located at the heart of Miami downtown area, the new Marriott Marquis is one of the latest and most anticipated buildings from the hotel chain being the first to receive the status of “Marquis” the second Marquis will be opening in Dubai, at the end of this 2011. The JW Marriott Marquis epitomizes the chains high end luxury architectonic and interior design style. Residing within the JW Mariott Marquis on the 39th floor of the same building is The Beaux Arts Miami, a boutique hotel.

This exclusive hotel/boutique provides a private, urban retreat environment catering to the most sophisticated and influential business and leisure travelers in the world. Standard with Bang & Olufsen state-of-the-art Plasma TV, stereo and entertainment systems, in room ipad, and your very own illy espresso machine this retreat is only for the most discerning guest.

For this shoot, we decide to accentuate on the architectonic space itself, emphasizing on the stunning views to the marina and Brickell bay trough the impeccable floor to ceiling windows. Each room was photographed using complex lighting to bring up the subtle yet compelling architectonic details unique of each room. Details like the warm light used to accentuate the playful rug pattern in the presidential suite, or the mirror central table where we carefully arranged the elements on the table to generate a complex yet visually clean composition of reflections and symmetries. These elements were carefully panned and woven together to generate a composition that encompassed the overall interior design and luxury architectural details of the place all in to one stunning image.

One of the most attractive design elements and one that favors a visually striking photo was the huge glass light sculpture that moves trough the different hotel floors carrying a conglomeration of glass pieces illuminated trough the top ceiling. Two approaches to this picture were taken; the first was intended to show the dynamic nature of the sculpture as it passes vertically trough each floor resembling a waterfall. In this picture we used a subtle light to illuminate the surrounding area to emphasize the cylindrical nature of the space, while the light sculpture maintain it’s main character trough the glowing light and the continuous reflections on the marble floor. The next detail picture taken directly under the light fixture generate a vortex-like type of image, emphasizing this idea of movement.

The second approach was to aim for a more static image where the glass pieces seem to flow static allowing for a magnificent close up of the suspended glass elements in contrast with the white marble floor.