Lifestyle
In my particular niche of design, working with artisans, makers, co-ops, and communal arts spaces, it can be helpful to create a visual mood or establish a tone of voice for my clients through photography. While I rarely offer photography as a service, Sending a handful of images to inform a client and provide a jumping-off point can be very helpful.
Often, I will stage and shoot images, develop Adobe Lightroom presets and send them as a package as part of my brand-building process.
Product
In collaboration with Wilderness Trading Co. I worked to produce a voice and a style for their product images which ranged from reclaimed victorian architectural salvage to taxidermy to medical oddities. Through a series of conversations, it was decided that the best way to downplay any flaws or damage inherent in vintage and antique items was actually to highlight them as a feature. A series of Adobe Lightroom presets were created on the back of several exploratory photoshoots and corresponding rounds of editing.
Where the work ultimately landed required a fair bit of infrastructure in terms of large studio lights, seamless backgrounds, and a bit of ingenuity. Punchy colors, broad dynamic range, and laser sharpness, on an almost incomprehensibly-white space became the look that went on to define their online shop presence. Due to the nature and volume of merchandise that was to be photographed, the impossibly white background had to be reliably replicated in-camera for the sake of expediting the process.
Concept
As part of the Sojourner branding, I had an idea as a product, or giveaway, or a promotional piece, really call it what you will.. but the project needed to be done, even if pro-bono.
The idea was this: A series of vintage-inspired travel postcards using imagery and editing to emulate the ubiquity of roadside gift shop postcards from the 50's-70's.
The next question was... How do we capture photos that look interesting yet have no central focus? How do we get these photos to look over-saturated yet slightly flat? How do we make a photo look so sharp, yet so out-of-focus? In a nutshell, how do we make digital photography look as if it were shot on Kodachrome in 1972?
And thus, the Sojourner vintage roadside postcard project was a born. All photos were taken during a cross-country motorcycle trip in 2022 from Kentucky to Moab, Utah and back.
