Josh Andrus: Iconic Boston

Josh Andrus was recently commissioned by Canon for it’s Pixma: City Senses project to create four bodies of work and share the vision of “Iconic Boston.” The project gave Josh the flexibility to decide how he wanted the viewer to experience Boston through taste, smell, sight, touch and sound:

My inspiration for the work was being able to translate each sense with focus on the strong community and lunch pail roots that gives Boston its pulse.

Josh decided to represent the different senses through Cape Cod (because, of course, New England Clam Chowder), Boston public transportation, quarries and breweries. Below, Josh lets me in on his thought process behind each of these beautiful bodies of work.

A proper bowl of New England clam chowder can be a serene experience. You may find yourself with blinders on to your surroundings and nothing else matters outside of your enjoyment of the bowl. I was seeking to recreate this serene, cerebral isolation by linking it to my personal experiences of walking the shores and dunes of Cape Cod. The journey of sourcing the clams and enjoying them in a chowder are one in the same, so I chose to represent that with the beautiful Cape Cod landscape. The brine in the air, the calling sounds of the water lapping and the silent movement of birds and clouds envelop me in a primordial pulse.

Public transportation brings millions of people each day in and out of our city center.  There are very few people who are holding their spots in the subways and tunnels of the MBTA.  Musicians and other performance artists use this constant flow of people to bring their art up close and personal to millions.  I personally gravitate towards the break dancers who pop up on the trains and tunnels and perform with the flow of travel.  There scene is always changing with the location and travelers, above ground and underground alike, so we took to the rooftops to reveal that sprawl of the urban landscape as a ever-changing canvas.

Looking at showing the structural integrity of the Boston, I researched the building material sourced locally from the area.  My search led me to the many quarries in Massachusetts, many of which haven’t been excavated since the ’20s.  Most are now used as local swimming holes that people drive from all over to enjoy.  I saw the parallel between the quarries initial use of building cities and towns that allowed for our communities to develop and the more recent micro-community developed around jumping from and swimming in the now water filled quarries.

Nightshift Brewing has a unique take on beer. Started by three friends brewing at night, they’ve sought to create memorable craft beers through culinary inspiration. In this campaign, we wanted to highlight the brewery, workers and their dedication to the movement.  Timing is everything on set and since we only had access to the workers during production, we setup to shoot them on seamless. We shot the backgrounds separately and blended them in post production to be pixel perfect.

For additional images, check out Josh’s blog, and for more of his work visit joshandrus.com.