Not long ago, I was contacted by InfoSecurity Professional Magazine about creating a photo to accompany an article about the proliferation of cybersecurity threats. The idea was to play off the iconic Maxell ad from the 1980s. You remember it, don't you? The black and white photo of the guy in sunglasses slouching in his Le Corbusier chair, hands gripping the armrests as his martini spills and his hair and tie blow back from the massive sound from the speakers in front him? He was known as the "Blown Away Guy". Well, if you don't recall, here it is to remind you:
Of course you remember. It's an ad referenced pretty frequently in popular culture, by everyone from P. Diddy to Family Guy. So, the idea was to take the "blown away by music" idea to turn it into "blown away by online security threats". Works for me! I don't know about you, but data breaches always make my hair stand on end.
I built a minimalist office setup in the studio to echo the environment in the ad, and found a model with hair the right length to blow back. The furniture was courtesy of IKEA. As you can see in the photo below, I didn't have enough of one kind of flooring to build the set out as far as I needed, and buying more wasn't in the budget, so I had to use two different wood colors and do a little floor tweaking in post. This wasn't terribly taxing, especially since the final file was to be in black and white.
The shoot was smooth. We did an outfit change, and tried a few with glasses and some without. When Rebecca (model) left, I shot a few papers in the air so I could composite them later. I was super happy with the result, as was east coast art director Maureen. Many thanks to her for bringing me along on the project! I think the final page looks great:
Fun fact: the photo in the frame is of a coastal hillside in Ireland, which I shot on a recent trip.