And the winner is…
When it comes to photography, I’m a forward-thinker — focused on the next thing, on improving, on having fun while learning something new and perhaps expressing myself in a different way. Which is to say, I sometimes forget about older projects until getting a reminder…
After wrapping up my very first viewing of Cinema Paradiso a few days ago — I know, I can’t believe it either! — I checked my email to find that my Bulleit image for Diageo’s House of Spirits had won IACP’s award for Best Commercial Food or Beverage Photograph! What a perfect way to start the spooky season — after all, the concept behind the shoot was a Halloween haunted mansion featuring a different Diageo brand in each room.
This project has truly been the gift that keeps giving. While working on it last year, I was able to art direct my first large-scale commercial photoshoot; worked with a fantastic team including agency reps, plus stylists, assistants and retouchers with whom I’ve collaborated often since; and produced some beverage product photography that I continue to be proud of. And I’m so happy this image won the category, as it’s my favorite from the shoot.
The challenge:
To create separate “rooms” that read as a cohesive whole while still retaining the branding cues of each company
To design settings that weren’t overtly Halloween-y or kitschy, yet reflected the holiday
And it was a challenge, though this room came together fairly easily. I played off the “frontier whiskey” theme for this foyer setting, using a skull and succulent for a western feel, while keeping it fresh and appealing with gorgeous textured wallpaper from Phillip Jeffries and a modern rocks glass.
I love photographing bottles and beverages in part because you can craft such a resonant story with them, but there’s something so special about whiskey — the warm glow, its realness whether smooth as silk or something that’ll put hair on your chest, and that feeling of a warm hug and acceptance — that keeps me coming back and exploring it as a subject again and again.
Thanks, IACP, for recognizing this image and all of our team’s hard work — cheers!
