How Emma Beiles Howie Became the Go-To Photographer to Get the Pre-Party Outfit Shot

Reported by Vogue.

There's a photographer you've been seeing everywhere without knowing her name. If you've paused on a perfectly lit, film-grain shot of a celebrity mid-glow-up — heels on, dress immaculate, the entire energy of I'm about to walk into a room and destroy everyone — that's probably Emma Beiles Howie's work. The 30-something Colorado native started shooting her little sisters on their mom's film camera at 14. Today, she's one of the most sought-after names for the pre-party outfit shot, a genre she's essentially made her own.

"My sisters used to say I made them feel beautiful, and that's what really made me want to do photography forever," Beiles Howie told Vogue. The pivot from passion project to full-time career wasn't a straight line — it was a single photograph. A candid she shot of Blackpink's Rosé during Paris Fashion Week 2021 went organically viral after Rosé posted it herself. From there, Rosé booked her for New York, she connected with stylist Yael Quint, and the trajectory of her career shifted entirely. "Those images changed the course of my career, for sure," she said. Quint is now one of her closest friends.

A Met Monday in Real Time

This year marked Beiles Howie's fourth Met Monday, and her schedule read like a military operation with better shoes. Four clients, multiple hotels, strict security checkpoints, jammed elevators, and exactly zero margin for error — she and her assistant Lindsey Englander were moving between The Mark and The Carlyle, loading film, running down ten flights of stairs, and navigating paparazzi cordons to make every shot. The roster included Joey King, EJAE, Grace Gummer shooting a Vanity Fair GRWM diary, and Lila Moss in a Conner Ives 1920s-inspired dress that Beiles Howie called the favorite look of the night. The final client was Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, photographed in the Tiffany Suite in a gown designed by Burberry's Daniel Lee — who was also present for the departure shots. Belles Howie was back home editing by 8 p.m. and didn't deliver the final images until 7:34 the following morning, squeezing in an after-party look for Gummer and a New York slice somewhere in between.

"I'm nervous every year," she admitted, according to Vogue. "Things never go quite as expected, especially with timing, but everything always works out in the end." The chaos, apparently, is part of the job description. What keeps her grounded is something much simpler than the logistics: the moment right before her subjects walk out the door. "Walking the carpet can be very nerve-wracking. My favorite thing is being able to make them feel beautiful before they go." The through-line from her Colorado childhood to a suite at The Carlyle is surprisingly clean.

The best fashion photography has always been less about the clothes and more about making someone feel like the best version of themselves — Beiles Howie just built a career out of knowing that.

Read the original at Vogue.