This was shot for my employer OMOI at the time, a small business known for its thoughtful design items, style accessories, and stationery goods. With limited time and resources, the purpose was to snap a set of festive “spooky season” photos for the website front page, featuring a concise selection of items purchased and timed to sell for Halloween.
Now Halloween was not a major holiday for the business in terms of sales, and only a small portion of the buying budget was allocated for stock. None of the items were strong enough to stand on their own, and for a majority of them, their spooky vibe was only apparent when assembled together. In other words, this was not a scenario where we were dealing with overt goods screaming “Halloween!”
The challenge was to depict the goods in a cohesive way that would be immediately apparent to online customers. In the business storefront, the featured items were merchandised in choice combinations and locations for customers to encounter. This shoot set out to accomplish the same for the online shop: a sense of discovery and intrigue, with a touch of Halloween whimsy, first thing on the front page.
The shoot itself took place in the business’s basement stockroom, with all the overheard fluorescents off, two IKEA vanity mirrors, and a pair of cheapie color-changing LED mood lights that I brought in from home. The concept was inanimate objects coming alive in the dark and assembling for clandestine purposes. I had about thirty minutes to make it happen.
The result was a front page that brought increased online sales of the target items, a newsletter campaign with strong target item sales that expanded to greater October sales overall, and a bit of haunted festivity to the business’ socials enjoyed by all. Everything featured sold through as desired, and the business discovered that its well-cultured customers don’t mind more frequent touches of the macabre.
But what I liked about this shoot was the opportunity to characterize these inanimate objects as being enspirited and having personalities. As a street style photographer at heart, I loved being able to shoot some candids of tough guys n gals in their eerie neighborhood.
May we all be enriched by our things.
