I really enjoyed looking through Maplewood, New Jersey-based photographer John Kuczala’s series of conceptual still life images for “The Guide,” a section of Walmart World Magazine which is published monthly for Walmart employees. Each of the section openers features a different take on Walmart’s famous “spark” element of its logo. John has been constructing and photographing the sparks for a year now, and we’re happy to show off all his hard work! Check out his most recent “spark” below:
John is no stranger to creating fun, conceptual imagery (a quick look through his website will show you that), but many of these images are a bit more environmental and different than his typical work. He’s also usually more involved in coming up with the concept, but the graphic challenge of constructing the spark does fit in with the illustrative quality of his photos. He first started the Walmart project after a Pace Communications art director that he had previously worked with thought his style was fitting for the magazine.
Every month, the team at Pace Communications comes up with a couple ideas for sparks that might relate to the stories in that issue and present them to Walmart. Once they decide which direction to go, it’s up to me to figure out how to produce the image. I work closely with the art director, Shannon Magann, through all the production and shooting.
Here are some more of the shots that have appeared in 2015 issues of the magazine:
Planning and prepro for the shots typically involves a couple trips to John’s local Walmart, as most of the contents of the photos should be Walmart products.
For better or worse, because of the constantly evolving, work in progress, nature of the shot, I do most of the styling and shopping myself. An exception was the ice sculpture spark—after talking to a few local ice sculptors, we decided that a model would probably be the best way to go and this was made by Brooklyn Model Works. Another exception was the bubble wrap spark where everything was ordered online. It was the first one that they asked to have a stop action GIF produced to show how the spark was made so I decided to make it myself over a couple day period, since we had enough lead time. After I’m given the concept, it’s pretty much up to me to decide how to produce it.
The gifs are a great addition, as they are a fun way to show the process behind creating each shot. John says Walmart and Pace have been thrilled with the images so far, and after 12 months and 12 issues, he’s still very happy working on the project.
Every one presents a different challenge. I’ve gotten better at toasting marshmallows, packing luggage, wrangling goldfish, making crazy Hot Wheel tracks and learned how to make bubble wrap designs and vertical gardens. I think this project has really honed my problem-solving skills.
Take a look at a couple of the gifs John created below:
Check out more of John’s work on his website, kuczala.com.