Goth Portraits at The Coffin Club in Portland

Sep 24

2 min read

A black-clad model poses in red fog beneath the lights of The Coffin Club.
A model in a red dress poses beneath a glowing spiderweb.
Black-and-white close-up of a dark-haired model with a beaded necklace beneath the spiderweb.
A black-clad model leans beside a red-lit window as fog fills the room.
A model in a pale lace dress stands beside an ornate coffin-shaped wall decoration.
A model in white lace leans beneath the glowing spiderweb with a hand on her shoulder.
Close portrait of a dark-haired model in white lace against The Coffin Club’s patterned wall.
A model in a white lace dress faces the camera beneath the glowing spiderweb.
Low-angle portrait of a model in a pale dress beside the ornate coffin, with orange light streaks in
A black-clad model touches her face beneath The Coffin Club’s glowing skull sign.
Full-length portrait of a model in a pale lace dress beside the ornate coffin-shaped decoration.
Black-and-white portrait of three models in contrasting light and dark outfits seated together insid
A model in white lace poses beneath the orange spiderweb with one hand resting on her shoulder.
A model in a flowing red dress reclines across the club’s bar while holding a drink.
Close portrait of a dark-haired model in red beneath the glowing spiderweb.
A model in a pale lace dress stands beneath The Coffin Club’s glowing skull sign.
A model in a red lace dress raises one arm above her head in deep red light.
A model in a pale dress poses with one arm raised beside the ornate coffin.
Two models in red and black outfits pose together beside a red-lit window.
Three models sit together in the club’s ornate red interior.
Side-profile portrait of a model in a red lace dress, lit by vivid red light.

Some places start as somewhere you go and eventually become part of your creative life.

The Coffin Club is one of those places for me.

Back when it was still called the Lovecraft Bar, it was one of the first proper goth clubs I visited after moving to Portland. It was also one of those businesses I noticed almost immediately and thought, damn, I would love to make something in there someday.

Years later, somehow we reached the point where the response became basically: come on down and run amok.

This wasn’t a paid advertising campaign or some carefully constructed client production. We genuinely love this place. Rose and I actually go there. The atmosphere is obviously right up our alley; we’ve gotten to know some of the coffin family there, they've allowed us to do projects like Krampus in the space, and they’ve been ridiculously kind to us.

This shoot was us doing exactly what I wish happened more often between local businesses and local artists.

Yvette asked if we wanted to create.

We said hell yes.

Rose, Gret and Imari came dressed for the room. Jimothy and David joined me on the photography and production side, and we carried Profoto lighting over from Cobalt Studios so we could work inside the club before it opened.

Then we got to play.

I didn’t want the photographs to look overly polished or like we had dragged a clean studio aesthetic into a dark little goth club. I wanted harder light, deeper shadows, theatrical color, and something that felt slightly older and more direct.

The kind of lighting that doesn’t apologize for itself.

The room already has so much personality that our job wasn’t to reinvent it. It was to let the people, the lighting, and the space smoosh together.

The full-circle part is probably what matters most to me.

I moved to Portland and walked into this strange, dark place because it felt familiar.

Years later, I’m carrying studio lights through the door before opening hours with Rose and a group of friends while the staff gives us free rein to create inside it.

That’s pretty fucking cool.

And we’re absolutely going back.

If you own a bar, restaurant, venue, or other space with an actual personality, this is exactly the kind of commercial and branding work I want to make more of.

You can also explore more of my Alternative Portrait work.

Location:

The Coffin Club @coffinclubpdx

Portland, Oregon

Models:

Rose Gerber, @rosegerberpnw

Gret Cook, @rawexpressions

Imari Tafili, @imaritafili

Photography and production:

Michael / Nilas, @xnilasx

Joined by:

Jimothy, @jimothy445 creativelycandidmedia.com