ALICIA VALDEZ
Luxury experiential dining event by We Are Ona, photographed by Alicia Valdez in New York

We Are Ona

Luxury Brand Activations & Experiential Dining

New York, Paris, Miami

A creative culinary studio at the intersection of hospitality, food, design, and atmosphere — producing luxury brand activations, immersive pop-ups, and experiential dining events across New York, Paris, and Miami.

In collaboration with Alexandre de Betak & Sabine Marcelis

Visual Approach

A table can hold the same visual discipline as a look.

What draws Alicia to hospitality is the same tension she finds in fashion — atmosphere, anticipation, and the emotional charge carried through detail. Each We Are Ona experience exists as its own world, shaped through material, pacing, light, and human presence.

Her role is to translate that language through image with precision and restraint. Photographing alongside Alexandre de Betak and Sabine Marcelis meant working within environments that were already deeply authored, allowing the images to belong to the space rather than compete with it.

The approach is rooted in sensitivity: following the movement of light through a room, the quiet tension between guests and objects, and the emotional temperature that lives in the moments before a space fully settles.

Paris

Alexandre de Betak

All candles, no fill light. Leaning into the darkness rather than correcting it, the imagery remains slow, cinematic, and intimate — preserving the tension between elegance and mystery exactly as it lived in the room.

New York

Alexandre de Betak

Sharper energy, illuminated surfaces, and a faster social rhythm. The design was already carrying so much visual weight, so the focus became moving through the space without flattening it — letting the room breathe and finding the image inside its momentum.

Miami

Sabine Marcelis

Daylight, translucency, and horizon. Shot on film, allowing the tonal softness of the medium to stay true to the way Marcelis's work moves with color and light through material. The medium needed to remain in service of the subject.

Paris — Alexandre de Betak
Luxury brand activation dinner by Alexandre de Betak for We Are Ona, Paris
Candlelit table setting at We Are Ona Paris, event photography by Alicia Valdez
Candlelight luxury dining atmosphere, We Are Ona Paris event photographed by Alicia Valdez
Experiential dining detail, We Are Ona Paris brand activation
Luxury pop-up dinner event photography, We Are Ona Paris
Moody atmospheric event photography at luxury Paris dinner by Alexandre de Betak
Dramatic candlelit hospitality photography, We Are Ona Paris activation
Luxury event photography detail, We Are Ona Paris dinner
Food and atmosphere photography at We Are Ona Paris
Intimate dining experience, luxury brand activation Paris
Hospitality photography by Alicia Valdez, We Are Ona Paris
Experiential dining detail, We Are Ona Paris brand activation
We Are Ona Paris
New York — Alexandre de Betak
Luxury brand activation event photography, We Are Ona New York by Alicia Valdez
Experiential dining atmosphere, We Are Ona New York with Alexandre de Betak
New York luxury event photographer Alicia Valdez, We Are Ona dinner
Hospitality and food photography at We Are Ona New York activation
Luxury pop-up event photography, We Are Ona New York
Experiential dining table detail, luxury event photography New York
Table setting and hospitality design, We Are Ona New York by Alexandre de Betak
Miami — Sabine Marcelis
Film photography of Sabine Marcelis installation, We Are Ona Miami
Luxury event design detail, We Are Ona Miami with Sabine Marcelis
Experiential dining event photography, We Are Ona Miami by Alicia Valdez
Luxury brand activation photography at We Are Ona Miami, Sabine Marcelis collaboration
Film photography of luxury hospitality event, We Are Ona Miami by Alicia Valdez