Still Images In Great Advertising, is a column where Suzanne Sease discovers great advertising images and then speaks with the photographers about it.

Geof Kern has been in the business for years and still continues to create beautiful and fresh images. This campaign has been on my radar for awhile so I couldn’t wait to ask Geof about it.

Suzanne: The ads for Ritz Carlton are so perfect for your sense and style. How much were you able to add your creative fingerprint to the concepts?

NOTE: When I asked Geof this question he sent me to a link where he already answered the question on his reps blog. I have copied it here so readers could see it.

When things align perfectly, the memory lasts forever. That’s the idea behind the new brand platform for Ritz-Carlton hotels. While the unspoken message of most hotel advertising may be “stay with us,” the creatives at Team One turned tradition on its head with their theme, “Let us stay with you.” It’s a strategy poised for a wealth of success. As the NY Times points out, “Since the financial crisis began, millions of wealthy consumers have decided to play down the joy of accumulating things in favor of the pleasure of accumulating experiences.” Team One’s approach appeals to this well-healed crowd by “drawing explicitly on a guest’s power of memory,” conjuring serendipitous moments that equate to “one-of-a-kind experiences.”

Of course, translating magical moments into memorable images doesn’t just happen by chance. The creative team wanted a photographer whose work was as elegant and nuanced as a posh hotel chain. But artistry alone wouldn’t cut it. As Team One Art Producer Jill Hundenski puts it, “It couldn’t look forced or faked. We needed a highly conceptual photographer. But it also had to be someone who could coordinate all the precise details.” “And trust me,” she laughs, “there were a lot of details. Even I underestimated the amount of pre-pro involved.”

Fortunately, orchestrating the impossible is photographer Geof Kern’s idea of a “very fun project.” “I absolutely loved working with Team One on this,” says Kern. “The brief was to use the concept of seeing something unexpected in the scene, as random elements realign themselves from the viewer’s perspective. In this case, ‘spontaneous’ took a lot of planning. Especially because we wanted to capture as much in-camera as possible.”

“For example,” Kern continues, “for the photograph of the woman holding the paper umbrella walking through the tea glass in an outdoor restaurant—I mocked that up completely in advance in my studio to determine the exact focal length and aperture setting…the distance we’d need between the glass and the model…etc., etc., etc. That way, I was prepared.”

As far as Team One is concerned, the preparation paid off, in spades. “Geof pulled off a very challenging concept,” says Hundenski. “We needed a master, and Geof was it.” The result is a series of photographs that draw viewers into a playful world where their own mind completes a visual pun of sorts, quite literally bringing readers along on a journey of discovery.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to ask yourself, why leave spontaneity to chance?” says Kern. For the moment, Team One is very glad they didn’t.

Suzanne: Where were the images photographed? With five concepts, how many days did you have for prep, shoot and post? The perfect location is crucial to the success of the ads.
Geof: I think I was awarded the job late May and we shot mid June. Post was complete about a month later. Took a while because of much back and forth with the agency TeamOne, and also because there were some videos for my retoucher to do post on.

Suzanne: You have been in this business for years, what inspires you?
Geof: That’s something I don’t think about much, I’ve been doing this all my life. New things inspire me, and things done well… that is, originality and craftsmanship.

Note: Content for Still Images In Great Advertising is found. Submissions are not accepted.

Geof Kern is based in Dallas where he maintains a studio to organize his shoots at home, New York, and elsewhere in the world.

APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s, after founding the art buying department at The Martin Agency then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies.

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6 Comments

  1. This has to be one my favourite categories of the blog. Always refreshing to see such creative and original work.

  2. I love the mirroring of the city skyline by the objects on the table in front of the late afternoon window.

  3. It always excites me to read about PRINT campaigns. Jumping into the video market is fun and exciting.. and certainly adds a new dynamic to the work photographer/directors create, but there will always be something about pure still imagery for campaigns that makes me smile

    • I agree. Print will always have more of a timeless aspect to it. You can say so much more with a still image.

      Print might die eventually, as everyone has said it will, but the still image will remain, just on a screen. Here I am after all, looking at a print ad on a screen.

  4. What beautiful imagery. Thank you Suzanne.

  5. Love to see that these images draw heavily on street photography. Not a combination you see often, but really awesome when it is executed well.


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