Meet Richard Baldwin | Photographer, Graphic Designer & Runway Choreographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Richard Baldwin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Richard, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?

Originally I’m from Connecticut although I consider myself being from Colorado as I grew up there from 4th grade to adulthood. My Mum is a legal immigrant from Scotland where her side of the family still resides. My Mum taught me through actions and not words. She was always compassionate and one of the hardest workers I’ve ever met, to this day, I still believe that. She worked several jobs while I was growing up and after I was grown I watched her go to College and excel in many other occupations. In the past she worked for the District Attorney in the small town in Colorado I grew up in, she worked as a caregiver to the elderly and continues to work with the community, counseling troubled youth and working with them to better their lives. She was always my savior and many times from my own Father.

My father was an extreme non-denominational Christian Preacher. He was adopted as a baby which I think added a lot to his psyche in harmful ways. My father was very controlling and abusive. I would be forced to stay up nights and days on-end writing papers and sermons. I was rarely allowed to be away from home in any meaningful way. I was not raised to think about the future and what positive things it would hold. I was always taught fire and brimstone and much of the abuse was excused by ‘The Faith’, spare the rod and all that. I was taught the World is evil and will break me. I was often told I would fail and my father would then revel in any said failures. As an adult I learned the value of your circle and fostering positive or negative circles, as such, I don’t talk with my father and therefore maintain a much more positive life. When I was designing runway events in my early twenties, having come from a controlling home gave me, what I would call the ‘Gatsby effect’, in the sense that what I imagined parties were like, were actually grander in my imagination then they often were in reality and so I was able to use that imagination and creativity and bring it into my events. Past runways where we had snow lining the outside of the venue while also creating a snow effect on the inside during the runway, or having a runway custom built across the old Spanish Fly pool, or like the Beach Bunny Grand Opening where we brought in 3 tons of sand and made the entrance look and feel like a luxurious beach cabana.

When I was 14 nearly 15 years old I had my right arm cut off at mid-forearm and then surgically reattached. My Dad’s best friend from his childhood was starting an adobe brick sign business. On the first day of operations he, my Dad’s friend, shut a hydraulic gate on my arm that had over 300 pounds of pressure psi. It snapped both bones and basically was like squeezing a water balloon in the middle. 23 years later and I still do not have full mobility and have always had to persevere and work harder, as I HATE the word Handicap and prefer to refer to myself as handi-capable. He was a friend of the family and without proper insurance and assets; so my family applied for Medicare and luckily were approved and they helped, overall it was upwards of $750,000 in medical bills.

I didn’t grow up in a time with viral social media videos and a time where bullying was identified as harmful as it is. Many of the kids I went to school with still made fun of me, calling me the one armed man. Going through those experiences taught me to be headstrong and not listen to others. The year after my accident I still went out for sports, instead of Football I ran Cross Country (where I qualified for State on the 4A level but was unable to run due to a broken foot bone). In the hospital all I watched and dreamed about was basketball. I loved basketball and still do, so that summer I worked everyday in the street in front of my house using just my left hand. All that hard work had really paid off too as I had been accepted onto the Varsity Team. I’m from a very small 2A school so let’s keep that in mind. However, the coach, Coach Story… I will never forget telling me and my parents “Richard is good enough to be on Varsity but I’m letting you know at the start of the season I’ll never play him or give him serious play time. I don’t understand why he’s even on the court. So if you want to quit he should quit now.” That was the one and only time I was told by my father that it was ok to quit. But I didn’t and I still had some great memories despite my Coaches attitude towards me even being on the team. I was allowed to play JV and occasionally when we were winning or losing by enough was thrown in Varsity games in the 4th quarter. Regardless of the Coach, there was a moment he could never take away… We were up by enough I was put in the game, we had scored over 100 pts and were a basket away from setting the schools’ scoring record. Teammate passed me the ball under the basket and with one hand I was able to catch it and lay it up for that score that went over the school record. The gym went nuts, I heard people yelling SCOOOPPPP. (That was the nickname they had for me because my hand and arm resembled a scoop after all of the surgeries.) That sports experience taught me quite a lot, I learned that people will admire you for persevering while others will hate you and resent you for it, even stand in your way and that adversary could even be an adult or elder. Another example of having to overcome an unexpected adversary would have to be, when I first discovered I wanted to become a photographer. At the time, I was working with a Bachelor’s Degree educated photographer who I also called a friend. Trusting my friend would have my best interests in mind, I had said to him at a PHX Fashion Week event that I love photography, love editing and graphic design and was thinking of becoming a photographer. My fr-enemy quickly replied; don’t do that, just keep hiring me! Here, do you want to take a shot with my camera real quick, to see if you got what it takes? Of course I said yes and took hold of the camera he handed me. Right before I was about to shoot he said wait, hold-up let me switch the settings. He then took the camera and unbeknownst to me at the time, had switched the lens from AF (auto focus) to MF (Manual Focus), I was new-new and didn’t know what that switch on the lens did and thought nothing of it at the time. As you can imagine with a high grade professional camera, no experience shooting and no true guide; I took a shot and boom, blurry AF. I handed the camera back to him and said I guess I don’t have what it takes. He said yea, just keep hiring me. That one photographer stole years from my photography career, it wasn’t until later out of necessity and with basic guidance from another photographer that I picked up the camera and started shooting and never looked back. Going back now to what I learned from my handicap experiences. I learned that your love for something can overcome physical disadvantages. I learned that the right team will stand up and stand with you. Those lessons carry through in business.

Anyhow, as I mentioned, I graduated from a 2A school. Not big at all. When my accident happened no one knew what to do, how to educate me the best way and so they took me out of most of my core classes; geometry, bio, etc and instead put me as a library aid. Because I was library aid for pretty much half the day my Junior and Senior years, I spent most of my time on the computer. Computers were still a relatively new thing back then, I remember when the school upgraded the computer systems to the round Apple computers that were like teal and aqua. Anyhow, that time taught me how to type quickly with one hand, which I still only type with one hand to this day due to physical limitations. That time on the computer taught me I had a fondness for computers and I believe that’s why I love editing images and graphic design as much as I love shooting a camera. I also learned how to be self taught and YouTube later became a huge advantage to teaching myself photography and graphic design.

Having a strict upbringing while being raised to be humble and laboursome shaped me in many ways. I have a work ethic that has always outpaced many of my competitors. I come from humble roots which have grounded me in focusing on my talents and what I am able to offer to The World each day and not resting on any laurels. Because I wasn’t allowed to attend parties or really socialize outside of school, it inspired creativity and unique concepts when it came to designing various runways like the Jovani Fashion Show I organized and executed during the 2009 NBA All-Star Weekend, where I had beat out Allen Iverson for the show venue and had the runway between Shaq and his wife’s runway charity event. That event was also a red carpet silent auction where many professional athletes donated signed baseballs, basketballs, footballs, cards and even a guitar signed by The Guns and Roses. Because of my personal experience dealing with my handicap, I have always been a big supporter of many charitable causes. That night we donated all the funds to one of the model’s family I worked with on the runway. Bridget’s stepson was diagnosed with MDS. I think the child was 8 at the time and was already losing the ability to walk. We gave all the money raised at that event to her family. Because of my own personal experiences with medical issues and bills I have always always been one to find a way to help where I can. However, I tend to only advertise those things until they happen and not much afterwards. Being from an extremely religious up-bringing I try not to boast and only include it in conversations about my personal portfolio when appropriate.

Before COVID took over I had organized a Toy Drive I named Rare Beauty Toy Dive and had one year as the UNIQ Toy Drive. I grew up never being allowed to celebrate the holidays, including Christmas. So for several years I went to businesses that had invested in me and my work and raised hundreds of dollars and toy donations. In the past we gave to several organizations, Orphanages, UMOM and then after a few years I was unhappy with donating to large charities that really showed little appreciation, so I organized for me and any model to volunteers to go to schools with underprivileged students and hand out the toys directly to them. For several years we had donated to 2 different schools’ pre-K through 2nd Grade. The last year, 2019, we had done the toy drive and I arranged for my son’s kindergarten class to volunteer with us and hand the toys out from one child to another. It was one of the most beautiful moments of my life, watching the kids volunteer to give toys to other kids they didn’t even know. At the end all the children volunteers were given a toy after they had successfully handed out all the toys. I really hate that COVID took that away. We were unable to continue because schools were no longer allowing any field trips or volunteers into their schools. Since then we have had so many school shootings that it is still difficult to bounce back and return to what we were once doing. I have done charity work for Quest to Cure, Breast Cancer, VOS 20/30 and several other projects. I am always looking to give back and look forward to restarting the toy drive in the near future. Aside from the toy drive I have often donated my photography, to individuals who may otherwise not be able to afford a professional shoot, to charity events, or even dog rescues. If you have a charity in need of photography please reach out as I’m always looking to give back.

Again because I wasn’t able to experience much in my childhood other than the scorn of a bitter father, I grew up loving nature and the solitude nature holds; that translates into my landscapes and nature photography. Because I’ve always had to imagine what others would do, I’ve always pushed myself to take bigger risks and strive for greater creativity which translates in many shoots like the full mermaid look off La Jolla Beach or having a bikini model shoot with a white tiger and asian leopard. Because I didn’t have a conventional up-bringing or conventional education it added a zeal for knowledge and creativity I use in my work.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

I am inspired by many genres of photography and look to give my all on every photo shoot and project. I am probably best known for my model/glamour photography but deeply enjoy and book photo shoots for products/events/family/nature/pets and landscapes.

I take great effort and pride to never duplicate a shoot to the point of being known for only one look. There are photographers who find one look, lighting, etc. and they really just interchange that look with a different person; the rest is all the same, same lighting, location, wardrobe, theme; personally I hate that approach to photography. I understand it can be a successful business practice but creatively I do not respect it and strive to be as creative as possible with all of my projects.

I love growing with my clients, watching their families grow, babies be born, and so on. Because of my personal upbringing I’m able to discuss all sorts of different topics and so many clients have told me I am very easy to open up to and have had repeat clients who have communicated the conversations we have while shooting have even been therapeutic to a degree and overall was an added enjoyment to their shooting experience, which tbh can be pretty nerve wracking for the client.

I took a very long route to photography, partly because I believed I was too handicap to ever succeed as a photographer. At first I was a model, did a few jobs, tuxes, restaurant ads, etc. because of my religious childhood I didn’t much enjoy being the subject but I was set a fire with love for the overall industry. I then was a Talent Scout Manager, next a talent representative, next opened my first talent management business where we focused on runways. Two biggest names and events being the one with Jovani who shipped 40 cocktail dresses from Italy and the second doing the Grand Opening Runway for Beach Bunny Swimwear in Scottsdale. I experienced a few bad investors. While I was in my early 20s, I was blessed and cursed to be involved with a multi-millionaire, who later on ultimately took advantage of me for years, but taught me so-so much about wealth, hard work and more of the insider info of wealth. From there, I self-published Rare Beauty Calendars and maintained sponsors like Estetica Cosmetic & Reconstructive Surgery, Buddy Stubbs Harley Davidson, physical therapists, gyms, bars, night clubs, restaurants, clothing businesses, and others for 6 years. Each year I scouted and cast each model, taught them the benefit of social media followers and how to leverage that for sponsorship opportunities. I have been in the industry 15 years and have done many different jobs. I now self-invest and keep my circle small. I’ve learned with each struggle each failure you learn to adapt, overcome and creatively get to where you want to go. If you have a target you can reach it, it may take longer but you can do it! You can achieve it!! At the very start of my photography career because I believed my handicap would hinder me from being a photographer, I used to find clients that needed photography, then find a photographer who would allow me to direct the entire shoot and edit the images captured, edit the images and pay that photographer 50% of what I was getting paid. Because I didn’t believe in myself I was literally giving away 50% while doing close to all of the work. That is how crucial self-confidence is in business.

Anyhow, with Mainstream Magazine I was the lead graphic designer and writer. That experience taught me about the publishing world. Before I was a photographer I worked with many great photographers but more as a creative director, when it came time to pick up my own camera, I had subconsciously learned various successful lighting techniques because I would always help set up lights, hold reflectors, reposition lights, tare down lights and along the way asked plenty of questions. Thus the learning curve was much shorter for me than someone starting without any background experience. By the time I picked up a camera I had already been to shoots by ESPN magazine had my runway featured in an episode of Baseball Wives on VH1, had commercials and various print opportunities under my belt, so when I did pick up the camera I had a ton of useful insider knowledge which translated into confidence. But all of it, all of it started when I took a risk and tried out for a hair show after high school.

Each part of my journey and each struggle has taught me more than a book ever could, or maybe even the conventional route could… Someday soon I’ll open my own studio and even that concept is pretty wild. I believe good things come with hard work and time. When I was in my early 20s success, to me, was measured by fast cars and ‘the benjamins’, now in my late 30s I view success as having work you love and call your own, work you are proud of and being a noble individual along the way. As long as you are still learning, still growing you’ll always be successful, no matter how long it takes to reach that personal finish line we all set for ourselves.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

3 years ago I was told I had lung cancer, later identified as Valley Fever. I bring this up because even though the desert is actively trying to kill me I still absolutely LOVE the State of Arizona. If I leave it will be for health reasons and that’s it.

Because I worked with the biggest NightClubs in Scottsdale from 22-30 years of age I’m pretty over the Old Town scene. If you’re in your 20s though, do you boo boo, that’s what your twenties are for! Personally I always love a nightclub or bar with a patio. I always had a blast working with El Hefe and Dirty Blonde (which before it was known as Dirty Blonde was known Axis Radius). Jeff O’neal used to be the GM of Axis but is now a managing partner of Riot Entertainment clubs so I always enjoyed myself at any of their nightclubs/venues and would recommend any of those establishments for the nightclub experience. I’m 37 now and I purposefully left nightclubs and runways when I turned 30 to focus on raising a family and my next professional steps, so there’s a good chance the clubs I knew then, no longer exist now. I used to love Smashboxx, had the best events there and the music was always good. For a time I was a Marketing Manager for Cream Stereo Lounge before they rebranded and then ultimately shut down, but I learned about all the other clubs during that time and would recommend a night in Old Town verse the Tempe College Crowd on Mill Ave and day.

The thing I love about Arizona is you can literally fit everything you want into one week and it’s all within a few hrs drive of one another. There are fun remote locations like Arcosanti where you can stay at a very affordable rate while drinking in magnificent views. You can hike Camelback mountain or many other trails, depending on your abilities. You can go down to the Salt River and watch the wild horses drink from the river at sunset.

The Valley has many great sushi restaurants and restaurant breweries like OHSO. Street art is also huge in The Valley and I have spent much of my time roaming the streets downtown, capturing graffiti walls and murals. There’s also First Fridays art walk and that has a real small town feeling but also huge, kind of like Austin with their music festivities.

Professional sports fan? Top Golf and handfuls of sports bar restaurants. AZ has the best options because our weather is so consistent many bands, teams, events come through The Valley. Personally I find Diamondbacks games boring. I worked for Lexus for a wee bit and they gave us a suite, I remember half of us started nodding off or had to keep ourselves entertained during that game. A Phoenix Suns game though EXCITING, ELECTRIC ATMOSPHERE. Cardinals have come a long way but as a Colorado boy I must admit I’ve only been to games where they play the Denver Broncos.

The great thing is throughout the day there is plenty to keep you physically active and entertained and then at night you have all the same opportunities. Rooftop bars, great eats, sports, nature, great sunsets, skiing/snowboarding, even skydiving either controlled or outdoors you can easily do, like I’ve personally enjoyed in Eloy, AZ. I could literally show someone all the tourist stuff and all the hidden gems AZ has to offer. I feel very fortunate to have been to places like Fossil Creek Waterfalls before it was burned by wildfires. Fossil Creek was one of those places that if you were just dropped there and not told where you were dropped, you’d never guess you were in Arizona. There are fields of wildflowers, wild foxes, horses, coyotes; there are many farms that welcome guests like Schnepf Farms. I also personally love the look and feel when visiting Tempe Town Lake. Beautiful modern buildings with access to a beach park with paddle boats, rental scooters and there’s just so many people being active and living life to the fullest.

I know the question asked about showing my best friend around but honestly, the only reason I ever moved to AZ from CO is because my best friend had moved here first and in his first week here called me, said I think you’d love it here, get here. The next weekend I moved here.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

There are quite a few people I’d thank and do thank often.

My Mum

My partner/fiancé Annmarie, who has always managed to never allow jealousy or pettiness to affect my photography career and photo shoots. You may not think that’s a big deal but when you deal with beautiful people all the time it is quite a blessing to be partnered with someone who either doesn’t get jealous or is able to handle any jealousy with respect and professionalism. Annmarie has helped in the past with sourcing models, wardrobe, helping with themes/locations and always is my greatest advocate. She bought me my first ever camera, a Nikon Coolpix which was a jumping off point for my photography, as ever since I’ve continued to invest in my cameras and equipment and knowledge.

Callum Yorke of Goldstone Wealth Management who sponsored my Canon 70D camera and has always shown great faith and support in my work.

My best friend Will Moffatt, who is a World Renowned Chef based and living in Norway. We have been solid friends for a few decades, graduated from the same small ass H.S. and to this day we have never had a bitter, ego driven, rivalry type of friendship. We have always grounded each other in our entrepreneurial endeavors, believed in one another and our dreams and really held each other accountable. We can go years without seeing each other in person but even as I type this we have a chat going about his latest wins and successes in his career field and me asking him for advice on this very feature.

Kirsten Quinonez has been a long time model who turned into a good friend. She and I worked together while publishing Rare Beauty Calendars, she was one of the Cover models and really was one of the first people to inspire me into becoming a photographer. I remember I had commented on Facebook that I’d love to meet her and shoot with her and wouldn’t you know it, even though she lived in New Mexico at the time she and her husband drove out for a calendar tryout. With the calendar I had created a sponsorship program with the models where they earned a base pay, plus commissions on any sponsors or sales they brought to the calendar. Because Kirsten was such a great model to work with and had many sponsors; I had chosen that year to stop investing in any outside photographers and bought my first professional camera to handle the photography myself. I published that swimsuit calendar from 2013-2019 ending it right before COVID.

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Website: www.RichardBaldwinUSA.com or www.RBbranded.com

Instagram: @richardbaldwin.usa

Other: Snapchat: RBbranded

Image Credits
First 2 images RB in Kilt (Clan MacDonald if you wanted to include that neat tid bit about the kilt.) Bike Took Off Up A Tree – Featuring Victoria – Also published and printed in the former Rare Beauty Calendars 2019 Fit Whey Product Shot – Orange Creamsicle Mom’s Off featuring Kirsten Q. Watermelon Days – Featuring Kirsten Q. Rare Beauty Calendars 2019 Cover – Featuring a live White Tiger and Elley Family Love – Featuring Tara and her family Rare Beauty Toy Drive 2019 Group Shot All photography and concepts by Richard Baldwin