The story behind the studio.
A Mexican photographer. A studio built together. A space for people building a life away from home.
Nicole Rodríguez
Photographer. Guadalajara → Bern.
Have you ever had a feeling so strong that you just could not ignore it anymore?
I grew up in Guadalajara in a house where my dad always had music on — Louis Armstrong, Bebel Gilberto, Pink Martini, Billy Joel at full volume on a Saturday. My mom made everything around her more beautiful without trying. Three sisters. A lot of laughing.
I think I got the creative side from her and the "let's make this into a business" side from him. I've spent most of my adult life trying to figure out how to use both at the same time.
I studied advertising and PR, then a master's in photography at IED in Madrid, then an MBA. Worked in brand management for a while. It was good — until one day it just wasn't anymore. So I stopped.
Juan and I found a space in Bern and decided to build Sêdona — without knowing how, with both our hands, nothing else.
That's the short version. The longer one involves a lot of cities, one crazy border collie named Gala, and more Olivia Dean than is probably healthy.
“I notice how people look at each other. The way someone's shoulders drop when they finally feel seen. I believe beauty lives in all of us — it just needs the right light.”
A STUDIO
Built together
Everyone else saw a dirty old room with problems. I saw the studio.
I couldn't explain it at the time — just that the light came through the windows in a way that made me stop, and I knew. Juan looked at the same space, looked at me, and said okay. That kind of trust is not small.
We spent months in there together. I cleaned, painted every wall, every pipe, every door, every ceiling. I designed the whole space — every material choice, every corner, every decision about what goes where and why. Juan did the ceiling structure, the floors, the electrics, the cyclorama system, the lighting rails. Things I couldn't have done without him, things he wouldn't have known to do without me.
We lowered lamps together at midnight. We argued about the wall color three times. We got it right on a Tuesday at 11pm when neither of us said anything for a minute.
Sêdona started as my vision. It exists because of both of us.
When you walk in, you'll feel it. You can't manufacture that.
More than a studio.
A creative space.
Photography is where Sêdona begins. But when I imagined this space, I always saw more than a studio.
I saw people arriving not knowing anyone in Bern, and leaving with someone to have coffee with. I saw workshops where making something with your hands is the whole point. Dinners where the conversation outlasts the wine.
That part is still being built. But it was always the plan.
Coming soon:
Photography · Floral Arrangement · Ceramics · Journaling · Wine & Jazz · Yoga · Community Dinners · Creative Talks