We tend to get pigeon-holed in this industry. Do a nice campaign with people in it and you're sunk. You'll only get calls for projects with people. We tend to do it to ourselves though. We find a part of photography that's fun for us and we go back to the well again and again. But the reality is that if you are the beneficiary (victim?) of both a well rounded, liberal arts education and a good technical grounding in photography, you should be able to bring both the taste and skills (such as they are) to just about any assignment.
One of my first assignments, years ago, was for a lifestyle magazine dedicated to American antiquities. I spent months and months on the road photographing the interiors and exteriors of historic homes. I shot plantation houses, ranch houses and meticulous reproductions of famous historic architectural styles. I got to know my view camera and my interior lighting from every angle and at one point could use it almost as fast as a point and shoot.
So, recently I did a comprehensive job for a law firm, shooting partners and associates and their far flung offices. The art director I worked was one of the rare ones who really gets that styles can cross over genres and specialities. With this in mind she also asked me to shoot the offices.
I was entranced by this lobby. Those are huge metal doors in the background. They move with computer controlled electric motors. They are "James Bond" cool.
Here's a close-up of the doors.....
It's not too hard when the client and their architectural designers have done their jobs well. The challenging stuff is trying to make a silk purse out of tilt wall construction and cheap furniture. But that's story for another time.....
11 comments:
Cool photographs - love those wavy lines and colors. Architectural photography can be so interesting! Perhaps more interesting than photographing lawyers. Did you use a tripod?
David, Thanks!!! Just to be a gear nerd for a second, I used a Gitzo g1439 Carbon Fiber Tripod with a Manfrotto 468 MG (magnesium) ballhead. I used a small level in the tripod shoe. I love photographing lawyers. But sometimes it's nice to stretch....
How is it that you can pull amazing images out day after day? Most of us get a keeper once in a great while. Your stuff is nearly always amazing. Is there some kind of secret you are not telling us?
I've got no secrets. I go out every single day with a camera. I take a camera to swim practice. I take a camera to dinner. If there's nothing to shoot I don't worry about it. But if there is...........
Kirk as a major fan of B&W I have to tell you the top photo is very cool. Color like that is hard to find.
Color like that is hard to find unless you're in a casino, disco, brothel or amusement park. In a law office a gaudy display like this would be unusual. Do the attorneys wear clown suits ?
Anonymous,
I think it's wonderful when business people take the time to do fun, inventive things with architecture and art instead of just mindlessly looking at the bottom line. I like innovation, new art, new ways of looking at things, and all the risk that entails.
I think you are being far too judgmental. If you think this looks to garish perhaps I have not done my job well enough....
Kirk, disregard criticism when it comes from people who aren't willing to sign their names to it. Any creep can snipe from a hideout.
Dave, Maybe I really didn't convey the coolness of the place and the ultra James Bond panache of the giant doors that revolve open at the touch of a button. Next time I will video tape it as well....
It's gaudy yes (and definately not Gaudi)! I think this looks more Austin Powers than James Bond, but I like the fact that this is for a law firm, as I always imagine law offices being straight lined, black and white, suit & tie kind of places, not colourful like this.
It's nice to see someone dares to be different!
OOO fantastic lines and color. Boy would I like to photograph this place too. Great work, Kirk.
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