Gentleman's Journal

Barns Furr, Art Director on the magazine Gentleman's Journal approached me earlier this year about shooting for a regular feature they run called "Deconstructed". It involves taking an interesting product or piece of design and shooting it in a completely deconstructed state. There is also a shot of the item "constructed"! For this particular issue the subject was a Bennet and Winch Weekender bag. A beautifully crafted canvas bag made in the UK. For the shoot the stylist Carrie Louise was brought on board. I've worked with Carrie on many shoots before, from Jewellery to Whiskey and she always brings a considered approach to any project. In the case we were fortunate that Bennet and Winch had supplied all of the materials, components and hardware that go into making the bag. The lighting and camera were very straightforward for the main double page spread. I used a single point source to give crisp hard shadows, and even illumination across the set. The camera set up was my Linhof CS679 plate camera. Attached was an IQ 80-mp digital back. The camera movements enabled me to tilt the focal plane across the subject, meaning I could get all the elements pin sharp in a single frame. The majority of the time was spent in arranging and composing the elements into a cohesive composition. The shot needed only minimal post production, just a clean up and simple colour grade.

For the second, "Constructed" execution we put the bag on a simple plinth. This highlighted the bag and enabled a low angle of view. The set up was obviously much more straightforward but the lighting was more involved. Carrie worked some magic with fishing wire and tissue paper to get the bag looking its very best.