Body shop international 2008 « Simonmccomb’s Weblog

In the spring of 2008 I was commissioned by the Body Shop International to produce photographs for their Autumn 2008 collection. The photographs were taken for a global brand identity campaign

The brief for the assignment was to move away from the bland white backgrounds and stark white locations synonymous with so many lifestyle shoots. Instead the Bodyshop required warm autumnal tones, saturated dark backgrounds and models with expressive and cheerful personalities.

We also searched for models who could act as well as look good. It was important for each scenario to be believable.

After an exhaustive casting in which nearly 200 models turned up in a period of over two hours, five models were chosen to represent the different age groups required. Next up was the location search. This became a real challenge to find a vibrant, colourful setting.

After visiting over 40 properties in the London area with the help of 1st option and Zownir, a rather elegant four storey town house was chosen in the Richmond area. Unusually the owner had painted the house in browns, reds and greens which was perfect for our shoot.

Lighting is essential to good health and beauty photography, so for this shoot ‘film’ lighting was chosen. Daylight and Tungsten lights were mixed to give a cinematic feel and emphasize the feeling of warmth.

Art Director : Scott Corbett

Make-up : Jane Sinclair

Assistant : Stuart Rose

The second commission from the Bodyshop was to produce photographs for one of their key areas of marketing, the Bodyshop ‘at home brand’. These are parties in which a professional Bodyshop consultant demonstrates a selection of new products from the Bodyshop range. The parties are cheerful, entertaining, informative and the photography should reflect this.