Shot by Both Sides
Ever wondered how things like this come together? What do you mean, "No!"?
Well, frankly, tough luck because we're going to show you. One sunny summers day we masked up and headed to our local running club to shoot the inaugural look-book for Admiral Sporting Goods Co.
Despite the location, the physical exertion took place for me the day before, having unexpectedly but somewhat triumphantly climbed Helvellyn as part of a project for an outdoor brand. Having previously done next to no exercise due to lockdown 1.0 it's fair to say my muscles had endured quite enough for one week. Luckily, I was able to conduct the shoot from a largely stationary/seated position and everything passed without serious defibrillator-based incidents.
When family members ask me to explain my job, I find it difficult. Some days I sit behind a desk and write words for Italian sportswear giants, other days I'm briefing designers and speaking to overseas factories. One thing I sometimes have to do is direct photo and video shoots. I'm no budding Spielberg but when it comes to sport, fashion and outdoor, my imposter syndrome is definitely waning. I kind of know what I'm doing. Not many people end up doing this kind of work without at least having a plan to do so. I fell into it and as a result, sometimes find myself in a brief moment saying to myself "Why does everyone think I know what I'm doing?". The truth is, I guess I do. It helps massively to have a team of very talented and hard-working individuals onboard, perhaps most notably on this day in the shape of Ben McCartney and Matt Stansfield.
Some football managers want to coach players to within in an inch of their lives, while others give them a game plan and trust in their innate ability. For this shoot, I was very much the latter, partly because I believe collaboration is often the best route to get something good done and partly because I felt like I was made out of custard cremes following the aforementioned wander. I did make the effort to do plenty of pointing and talking but in general the real work was put in beforehand, in establishing a clear brief, organising the clothing and making sure those involved knew what we wanted to achieve
The result is something we're all pretty proud of. We've worked extensively on the concept of this brand so to see it through to this point is probably the first time we've been able to apply all our experience and skills to one cohesive project. We're clothing snobs which means unless things are done the way we want them to be done, we're not really interested. Luckily in this case we had our hands on everything.
Credits:
Photography: Matt Stansfield
Videography: Ben McCarthy
Production: Matt Hoey, George Smith and Mark Smith
Hair and Make Up: Roxanna Gillani
BTS: Oscar Hamburger
Words By Mark Smith
