Studio portraits for the John Lewis Partnerhsip

Earlier this year the John Lewis Partnership (who own John Lewis and Waitrose) announced they would be entering the Build to Rent market, which is essentially a professional rental business. Their reasons for entering the market stem from a desire to provide a better service to renters who regularly complain about living conditions, unexpected expense and lack of communication.

I was involved early in the year as the messaging was being crafted and was appointed creative director for the production of a video and as stills photographer.

The challenge for a project such as this is simply that the new venture is a concept – there is nothing to actually photograph because they haven’t built any homes yet – which means creating the vision in a studio setting.

The first task was to find a ‘white box’, which would enable us to control the lighting and bring in a number of John Lewis and Waitrose branded props to create the ‘home’ we envisioned.

There were several set-ups that we wanted to capture including: working from home, relaxing, and creating memories – the ordinary things we do every day in our own homes.

The images and video will be used for internal and stakeholder communications over the next year as the new business gathers pace and develops.

We took an afternoon to set-up and a day to capture around a dozen different scenarios with the models, using a very small team and minimal lighting kit.

I used a handheld Leica M10P with a 50mm lens for all the shots and we used dimmable LED lighting to create warmth and atmosphere.

The whole project has been an exercise in efficiency and thinking creatively.