Ricky Martin: All In (Part 2)
The work moved to Las Vegas after two company moves in Los Angeles.
Rehearsals in LA took place inside warehouses, where space was limited and the focus was on repetition and adjustment. In Vegas, the production expanded into the Park Theater, a venue built for scale. The change in environment brought a different kind of pressure. Larger stage, more complex lighting, and decisions that could no longer be revised quietly.
It was in Las Vegas that I learned the original plan for a coffee table book was no longer moving forward.
At that point, walking away would have been understandable. Continuing was harder. I stayed because the story had not stopped unfolding, and because documenting it mattered more than the format it was originally promised to live in. What was happening in front of me was larger than a book. This was Ricky Martin’s first Las Vegas residency, a production built to expand his reach and reintroduce the work at a different scale.
In documentary, you don’t observe from a distance. You become part of the process simply by staying present. That realization sharpened something for me. I continued not out of obligation, but out of respect for the work, the people involved, and my own standards. This gallery reflects that moment. It marks the point where persistence became a choice, and where the act of seeing something through mattered more than how it would ultimately be packaged.
Continuing to photograph was not the easy choice, but it was the necessary one. I stayed because the work was still happening, and because I owed it to myself and to the story to see it through. What remained was worth documenting. The effort. The coordination. The responsibility of executing a residency at this level.
I was tested. I stayed. The work mattered.
Crew members occupied the Monte Carlo hotel connected to the theater, and for nearly two weeks the production lived there. Days were long. Rest was limited. Adjustments continued around the clock. What appears seamless to an audience is the result of sustained focus under pressure.
This gallery reflects that phase. Unlike the first, which centers on process and proximity, these photographs are about scale and execution. Control rooms. Lighting cues. Final rehearsals. The moment when preparation is tested publicly.
At the center of it all was Ricky, moving through the arena as a performer, collaborator, and decision maker. These images follow that movement, from the threshold moments before the curtain lifted to the quiet release after opening performances.
If Gallery 1 documents what it takes to build something, Gallery 2 documents what it takes to continue when the outcome is no longer guaranteed.
That is the second half of the story.