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!
I grew up in Trondheim, Norway.
19 years ago I left for the US to study photography and eventually ended up staying here creating a life and career.
My heart is still in Trondheim and when I got introduced to the local advertising agency HK with the possibility of working with them on some great creative I got really excited.
The brief was to create a winter wonderland out of the town square and the shopping center sitting at the end of it…
At the time I was in Namibia so with desert sand between my toes I started thinking about turning the square in my hometown into a fashion winter fairytale.
The challenge; It was fall and another month or so till snow would start falling.….
I do love this kind of challenge. It get’s my mind going on how to craft a beautiful visual without having the right elements to work with.
How do we make winter before there’s snow?
How do we turn buildings into Ice?
There’s a lot going on in this process and in it all I’m both a photographer and director. I take pictures and but also work with and direct icemakers, CGI artists and retouchers to all come together to craft one single photographic moment…
Check out the behind the scenes on how it all came together.
Big thanks to the AD agency HK, Thomas Juul, Art Direction, Chris Bodie on retouch, Hacjob on CGI, Leila Hafzi for supplying the dress and Another Production in London for putting it together in a really short period of time.
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!
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