I’m very honored to, again, be included in Luerzer’s Archive’s 200 Best Advertising Photographers Worldwide. This time for the latest 2014/15 listing.
This is the 5th time I have been included in this great company of exceptional photographers, and just as honored every time…
I last year travelled to 11 countries and criss crossed the US many times over on assignments for different advertising agencies.
Some of this travel was done for Westin Hotels and Resorts.
The campaign I was hired to photograph was to represent and speak to the pillars of Westin as a brand. The foundation of what drives them as a premium hotel are 6 pillars; “live well’, “sleep well”, “eat well”, “play well”, “feel well” and “work well”.
I love when a client comes to me and say; these are the things we believe in and what we stand for. And I love getting an assignment that has an intention and a storyline!
With a tagline like “ sleep well” I get to dive in and ask myself ; What does “sleep well” mean to me? What does “sleep well” look like? What does it feel like? What are the light, tone, texture, color and emotions of sleeping well? How is it reflected in who you are as you wake up?
And what is it in context of travel?
With 260 days of travel in 2013, where and how I sleep at night truly matters and this assignment became very personal to me in how I related to the Westin Pillars.
It helps me as a photographer to make each image I take personal. To find a way to relate to the brand and the image to be created…
It then is not an image executed for a client but an image I relate to and care about. An image I can infuse myself into both on a visual and emotional level.
As an image maker this grounds me. It grounds me to seek what the ideas and story mean to me personally so that me and who I am get reflected in the images created.
In the case of Westin it was easy. They focus on the things that are hard when you travel a lot for work. To eat right, to exercise and to wake up rested. The things that can truly make a difference while on the road.
In this campaign I was graced with great art direction and ideas and the heart of the campaign also became very personal.
Hope you like the images!
The 2 things I strive to capture and improve upon in all of my work is the connection to the people I photograph and the stories being told within the image.
Earlier this year Colangelo came to me with a project for Don Julio Tequlia which was centered around the man who literally changed the way tequila was being crafted and turned tequila into the premium spirit it is today.
To come to a project with such history and heritage is a great privilege.
The concepts from the agency were equally strong, focusing on the pivotal moments in Don Julio’s life and career, and then asking the question back at the viewer: What would you do??
Here was a set of ideas and layouts including the 2 very things I find to be both the most fascinating and elusive part of photography. To tell amazing stories in an honest, yet contemporary way…
So with the inspiring story of Don Julio and a set of amazing layouts we spent 10 days in the Tequila region of Mexico trying to honor Don Julio’s story in a modern yet archetypal way we can all relate to.
I’m in gratitude to the creative team at Colangelo for trusting me with such an amazing project resulting in a set of images I’m truly proud of!
I have been saying this for years and it is still true…
My living is made traveling to amazing places, meeting amazing people and have these extraordinary experiences while creating pictures…
Late May this year I traveled to Nepal with Norwegian clothing designer Leila Hafzi.
She had decided to become a designer at the top of the mountains in Nepal 15 years earlier and for this collection she brought myself and the crew back to Nepal with her to capture some of the spirit that made her commit to her path.
It all started in Kathmandu. Our first shoot day was met with a rainfall so heavy it made it onto the front page of the newspapers. Amazingly refreshing to work with a creative like Leila who with ease embraced the rain as a part of the image and it’s time and place.
This set the pace of the shoot and off we went…
We continued with magical moments among Buddhist monks at Bodhanath, and at Patan Durbar Square we drew a crowd of hundreds curious about what was going on. I guess it’s not every day a 6 foot tall blonde shows up wearing an evening gown…
We then travelled to Pokhara and the majestic mountains of the Himalayas.
The sense of place at the foot of these mountains are both overwhelming and awe inspiring. In a space like this things truly get put in perspective and one can’t help but question how insignificant one self is and wonder about how one belong.
How one truly belong in the larger sense of things…
The first day we shot in the village of our local guide and we got welcomed with open arms. We were hoping for a portrait with a few of the local women but ended up with a huge crowd, all wanting to be photographed. We spent the day there shooting through sunset having one unforgettable evening, which at sunset just had gotten started.
After wrapping up we were heading up the mountain to prepare for shooting sunrise the following am. This was an hour drive followed by a 45 minute hike to the top where we would stay at a farmhouse overnight. This would have been all good if it had not been for half the crew walking through an area full of water leeches making it one bloody and sleepless night. Do think I was the only one that caught a few hours of sleep that night…
After a crazy morning rainfall and some local Sage remedy for the leeches we again started taking images. Fog rolling in and out and mountains appearing just long enough out of the clouds…
We then headed down to Pokhara Lake for the last day of shooting….
In looking back at an assignment like this I have to say it’s the experiences that I take with me.
When home it’s not the pictures that are the most precious. The pictures serve as amazing reminders of a time and place I was allowed to immerse myself in, absorb and take with me.
They also remind me every day of how fortunate I am to be having my camera as my profession through which I get to explore and see this world.
In this I hope the ones seeing the images sense a bit of what we experienced while in Nepal…
To Leila, Stian Foss, Birger Løkeng, Tore P, Jocelyn Whipple and the beautiful Sarah Birkett and the Nepali crew; I’m forever grateful for one unforgettable experience.
And at the end. Please check out the Behind the Scenes Video…
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