Stockland Martel

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Matthew's cover portrait was inspired by a paparazzo shot of Brigitte Bardot.

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Grammy-winning, platinum-selling country artist Carrie Underwood’s third album, Play On, won’t be out till November 3, but the leadoff single, “Cowboy Casanova,” is already seducing music fans. It hit No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in two weeks. Yee-ha. (You can preview “Mama’s Song,” another track from the album, here.)

“Play On reunites Underwood with longtime producer Mark Bright and writer Brett James, but it also finds her branching out a bit,” reports Billboard magazine. “The American Idol winner teamed up with Mike Elizondo (Eminem, Dr. Dre) to co-write ‘Cowboy Casanova’ with James, and she’s also been working with pop hitmakers Kara DioGuardi and Max Martin.”

Carrie’s record label, Arista Nashville, chose Matthew Rolston to shoot the album cover and promotional images. Here, the celebrity photographer shares his thoughts on the project.

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Your portrait for Play On shows Carrie as a confident, grown-up artist. Did you two discuss what the image would be like and what it should convey?

Yes, we had many creative discussions before the shoot. We actually tried six totally different concepts on the day. I imagine the other concepts might appear later as single covers, trade ads, and PR shots. There was an exchange of photo references between me and Carrie covering fashion/styling, colors, hair & makeup ideas, and more. Then there were a couple of conference calls that involved my team and Carrie’s team (including her creative directors, managers, etc.). There were a lot of players here with a lot of opinions. Sometimes that’s part of the job.

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The cover photo has an intimate, natural feel to it, as if it was shot at her home. Where, in fact, did you shoot this portrait, and what kind of direction did you give the stylist and prop person?

The cover image was inspired by a paparazzi shot of Brigitte Bardot at a cafe on the Croisette at Cannes, circa mid-’60s. We tried to casually re-create the atmosphere inside a natural light studio. There were no lights used in this photo. Just natural light at the correct time of day, from the correct angle. We wanted the picture to express an unstudied kind of beauty, a little beach-y, a little boho, not “done” at all.

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You are renowned for your lighting, which brings out your subjects’ beauty. How did you approach the lighting for the cover?

In this shoot, I tried almost every lighting trick I know. From “beautylight” to natural light, to movie lights, to LITERALLY candlelight, and on. Each of the six different photo concepts had radically different lighting plans.

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You also shot a series of collateral images to promote the CD. How did you approach those photos so that they would be distinct yet also feel like part of a cohesive package?

For each photo concept we also shot a few close-ups and details of Carrie, the props or set elements, that could be used to build out a package. In a sense, each of the six concepts WAS a cover shot. And each setup had enough “cutaways” or details to be used for either the main CD package, including inserts, or for front/back cover usage on a single package. Or the shots could stand on their own as PR. In addition, for every “concept shot,” we also did more shots of Carrie in the same wardrobe with straight-ahead beautylight on a plain white background. We had the beauty setup in another area of the studio, so we could be running two to three concepts at the same time. This way we maximized the shoot and gave Carrie and her team many, many options.

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What music did you play during the shoot?

We only played Carrie’s songs a couple of times. Mostly we played hard rock… I don’t remember the bands… Carrie’s choices from her iPod. She was liking LOUD rock music that day.

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