It all started over a innocent cappuccino at one of my favorite Bree Street spots, Jardine Bakery. Francois Botha from Frazer Parfum and I were enjoying our ritualistic coffee kick, when we started brainstorming about his perfume brand. Talk is dangerous. A week later and we had a full-fledged production on our hands.

Frazer Parfum is a perfume house based in Cape Town which has recently inaugurated two retail outlets in Europe; one at Harrods in London and another in Amsterdam. They have just started shipping to Anthropologie in the US, which has 120 stores. We needed to create a campaign idea for Frazer that bridged the gap between the perfumes source, the deeply rooted rich African heritage, with a contemporary and light feeling of an indulgent perfume experience.

My Typical Prep work. It makes sense in my head, I promise!

I began thinking of a simple background story for the shoot, something that would sum up the campaign idea. As a treatment and art direction I wanted to use hard rich lighting and woody textures. I first referenced a lot of Yves Saint Laurent editorial shots done by Jeurgen Teller I had scene featured in TANK magazine. I decided to play on an African royalty idea that was more Central or West-African, no necessarily Zulu or the tired tribal South African lion-skin visuals that you’d see on the South African tourism website. This idea of an African Princess who held the secrets to unlocking the essential ingredients to create the Frazer’s unique scent became the key theme to the campaign. It’s also great to use an idea that can be developed later by the brand. My mood boards were sketchy, but full of ambition. I don’t like to make very detailed sketches of the shots because I like to ‘feel’ my way through the idea even until post-production and final treatments. I start with references and mood-boards, quite a few sketches of the models poses so I can brief the model on set for exactly what I’m looking for, and then I try ‘herd’ these ideas and impressions through the production until I’ve landed on the shots I want. I guess it’s a bit like cooking. There’s no exact recipe, but it helps to have the best ingredients. We had a week to organize wardrobe, locations, and styling. To add extra pressure, post-production and prints needed to be done within 2 days after the shoot, on a weekend before the launch of the Frazer Parfum pop-up store in De Waterkant.

Luckily I had some extremely talented people on shoot to help me, including the stylist, Cally Palmer, Hair and make artist Kevin Epstein and the beautiful clothing by Clive Rundle. Lindiwe Suttle was one of the most patient models I have ever met, especially in 32 degrees sweltering Stellenbosch heat. I had an idea for one shot that I called “The Crazy cloth shot” where I bought 40 meters of fabric and I was planning on somehow wrapping it around our model. True to her reputation, stylist Cally Palmer managed to create a Haute Cauteir dress with mere 5 strands of fabric while on location, turning my original mock-up sketch to a striking reality. Kevin Eptein and I clicked really well, and understood my vision and brought it through his work in Lindi’s make up and hair. It’s a pleasure to work with such a professional and experienced team.

Hard at work shooting on Location.

These more ‘glossy’ campaigns are a new direction for my photography, with much more art direction, styling and production. The results speak for themselves. Here is the main campaign gallery.

My favourite shot from the campaign.

Credits:

Model: Singer Lindiwe Suttle
Styling: Cathy Bowen and Cally Palmer
Make-up and Hair: Kevin Epstein
Dresses by: Clive Rundle
Shot on Location, Hawksmoore House, Stellenbosch
Frazer Parfum: Francois Botha and Tammy Frazer – www.frazerparfum.co.za

People to Follow on Twitter:

Frazer Parfum
Francois Botha
Jardine Bakery in Bree Street