CAMPAIGN CONCEPT—FLORA OBSCURA
August 2021 - March 2022
Tabata vara: model, creative director | chelle samson: florist, set designer | luis henriquez: lighting and tech | eliška MERCHANT-dest: secondary photographer | wole ajagbe: producer, principal Photographer
I worked closely with Chelle, the genius florist and fashion set designer behind Misa Floral and long-time collaborator, artist and dancer, Tabata Vara to create a series inspired by deep introspection and, ultimately, finding the beauty within. Together with Luis, a film-maker and lighting expert, and Eliška, a fellow photographer who beautifully captures nature and nostalgia, we produced our most ambitious multimedia project to date; including fine-art motion portraits and other-worldly stills.
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Create a series of visuals that embraced the beauty and excitement of renewal in the Spring while directly acknowledging the past two years spent surviving a pandemic, social unrest, and war.
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A floral arrangement that resembled a young garden, full of life but with room to grow. We also cast Tabata as one of the flowers in this garden styled with green stockings to resemble a stem.
To contrast the vibrant composition we used a moody, two-point light set up to cast our garden against a darker backdrop; an acknowledgment of our collective struggle over the past two years.
Finally, we knew that the only way to tell this story effectively was to bring it to life beyond a still image, so we devised a series of short video loops—motion portraits—captured on the same set.
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Multiple white-label assets for brands to use in Spring campaigns, content for Chelle and Tabata to incorporate into their portfolios, and a proof of concept for adding a more dynamic element to portraiture in order to inspire wonder, curiosity, and better engagement.
