Growing up as I did I became very familiar with Catalogue books. You know the ones - Kays, Freemans, etc
They sold everything - like an analogue Amazon.
And it had the option to pay it up. So as a kid I’d always pester my mum that i could use my pocket money to buy the latest Action Force playset over 20 weeks. I obviously had no idea how long 20 weeks was!
Obviously these books were full of models. And the tropes looking back were pretty hilarious. A LOT of smiling and laughing, flying kites, having picnics, eating around a dinner table - basically the exact opposite of life for a lot of people using this kind of service.!
And so rolling on a few decades I find myself needing product photographs for Doric Skateboards and think back to these.
Product photos with models isn’t something that I particularly paid much attention to over the years. And so I started to look at Skate/Street wear/Fashion pics.
Something was wrong. They all look aloof, miserable, too cool for school. Looking into the distance, hunched over squatting on a manky side street - its said “fuck you, you aren’t cool enough to wear this shit”.
Of course that assumption is very much coloured by my own low self worth…
But it did plant something in my mind. Why do some models smile and some don’t?
Seems the answer is depressingly simple.
Smiling is associated with being an idiot. Lower class.
Frowning or looking dismissive is associated with power. Higher class.
These conclusions came from some googling - i would add references but this isn’t a dissertation.
So where is the room to express what the brand is? Apparently you shouldn’t? The product should do the talking and the model should do just that - model.
I’ve been lucky enough to have some mega talented photographers do stuff for me. Dean Gray and Pirate Photography spring to mind. Both locals who were kind enough to reach out. Thankfully they displayed flexibility so that the work they did for us wasn’t one or the other in its entirety. Way back in the beginning I was also lucky enough to be contacted by a couple of local chaps - Ryan of Westburn & Granite and a lad called Dominic who i’ve lost track of. Below is a selection and looking back I think they reflect Doric Skateboards pretty damn well.
A bit of fun and a lot of colour.
Check the links above to those talented folk - each picture is also linked to who took it. Thanks again to them all.! : )
Also below that - some classis catalogue modelling!
