San Francisco-based Adam Wells recently teamed up with his regular client Cotopaxi to shoot their Fall 2023 campaign. Adam and Cotopaxi have built a professional relationship since his first spec shoot for the company in 2016 when he was just starting out as a freelance photographer. Cotopaxi is a Certified B Corp, committed to offset the impact of production through environmental and social initiatives. They have an idiosyncratic and regenerative approach to business that warrants equally unique imagery.
While most commercial photographers shoot primarily in digital format, Adam is one of the rare breeds who has managed to incorporate analog imagery into his commercial advertising work. There is a qualitative difference between digital and analog, as well as advantages and disadvantages to either medium. Through much practice and dedication to the craft, Adam has found a balance between the two mediums. He incorporates the best of both vernaculars to create advertising campaigns that have the flexibility and utility of digital photography, but are filled with the warmth, emotionality, and singularity of analog photographs.
The imagery Adam shot for Cotopaxi’s Fall 2023 campaign took him and the crew to the fringes of the inhabited world in the high desert of Atacama in Chile. Creating imagery for Cotopaxi’s entire Fall collection entails capturing diverse kinds of imagery from Lifestyle, Outdoor/Adventure, Travel, and Brand Narrative. With one week to shoot, a busy travel schedule, and a vast assortment of bags, accessories, and apparel to document, this was a demanding project that required careful planning and preparation from all parties involved.
Adam’s relationship with Cotopaxi began in 2016, soon after he left his office job with outdoors company Topo Designs in Denver, Colorado, and struck out on his own to start a career as a freelance photographer. He and a friend traveled New Zealand for a month, taking “spec” images of Cotopaxi gear, as well as ten other brands, as they backpacked and trekked across the lush landscapes of the island nation.
My relationship with Cotopaxi started just as a spec experiment with a few newer products they sent me like a backpack, a sleeping bag, and a couple t-shirts. One of those photos ended up printed big in their office spaces in Salt Lake City. I think that helped make it hard for them to forget me.
Adam is a traveler by nature, and he continued to develop his rapport with Cotopaxi over the next few years by capturing imagery of their products while traveling the world. After a few smaller one-off shoots, Adam landed his first major campaign with Cotopaxi in 2021. This assignment in Chile was the fifth campaign Adam shot for Cotopaxi. It marked the culmination of many years of collaboration and a shared ethos that harmonizes both Adam’s photographic style and method with Cotopaxi’s brand narrative and corporate principles.
I’m an adventurous minded person. I love traveling. I came from the outdoor world of camping and backpacking. That whole lifestyle and mindset is something that I’m already aligned with. Cotopaxi is environmentally conscious. They are a B Corp that is trying to infuse values into the outdoor lifestyle. They target a broad demographic, but I think they bring a lightheartedness to their marketing imagery.
I’m good at connecting with folks and making them feel comfortable on camera, building a genuine relationship and making things lighthearted and energetic. I’m always looking for in-between moments that aren’t hyper-posed and staged, but have motion and movement within them. So I like getting our models to focus on an activity and not the camera. Like, what are we doing? We’re gonna try different ideas. We’re gonna jump around these rocks. We’re gonna play a game. And once you think I’m done taking photos is when the photos actually happen. This method and technique has aligned well with the brand image that Cotopaxi is going for.
While in Chile, Adam and the crew had a busy travel schedule ahead of them. Everything had been meticulously planned by the production team beforehand.
For this campaign, Cotopaxi hired an amazing contract producer named Lauren Steele. She’d been down to Chile for a Vice story a few years ago and built a handful of contacts. We were building off of her existing relationships, and then trying to match the specific products that Cotopaxi’s Fall line included. I’m roped into those conversations on the backend. Most of the planning has been done. Maybe they’re debating between location A or B, and trying to think through the rhythm of each day. We’ll have a pre-production call where I chime in with my 2 cents about how I’d like that to flow. On these jobs, I’m not scouting the locations or putting together the itinerary. I’m just plugging in to operate within those spaces.
Over the course of ten busy travel and work days, Adam stressed the importance of having all the details like shot lists, outfits, and products planned ahead of time.
It’s really important to me that we have a basic shot list established going into the photoshoot. What are the priority products in each scene? We have outfits built out for each model that way we know which products that are going to be on figure during the city walk around Valparaíso, right? So we know which products to focus on and I’m not trying to shoot 25 products while running around the city.
With so much of the planning done ahead of time, Adam was able to focus his energy on capturing the right product images, as well as those “in-between” moments he is so fond of. Cotopaxi asked for diverse kinds of imagery that contextualize and narrate their products while also emphasizing the qualities and materials from which they are made.
I’m mostly focused on lifestyle and capturing people, interacting with the environment, and moving through these unique spaces. This project was a blend of documentary work with some targeted product photography interspersed. Having a set wardrobe and shot list established going into each day helps kind of seed the targets and give us some pillars to guide us through the day. It is a fast paced production and a big lift trying to rack my focus from detail shots to mid-level to wide angle. I often have four different cameras bouncing on my body at a time, so I can toggle between different focal lengths rapidly on the move.
The photoshoot was a journey unto itself that took Adam and company into some of the most remote and extreme climates in South America. Their itinerary took them around the country by air and by land, which left little time for respite.
The local production crew called Puna de Atacama picked us up from the airport with three off-road trucks. We loaded everything up in the back of the trucks and went straight into the sand dunes that first night. It’s a travel heavy production to capture a lot of variety in a relatively short time. I mean, these are week-long productions. It is a substantial amount of time, but given the amount of variety that we’re seeing, you know, we’re in multiple locations throughout the shoot, if not each day.
Away from the comforts of city life, Adam experienced first-hand the beautiful intensity of the natural world in the remote locales of the Atacama Desert.
We ended up camping out in the dunes one night. Our elevation was maybe 8,000-9,000 feet at that point. It was relatively cold — I think it got down to like the forties there. Then we drove further into the high Altiplano Desert. I think our base camp was at about 12,000 feet. It got down to zero degrees at night. We were in the hut in a “refugio,” heavily bundled and layered. These are definitely physically challenging productions which I don’t think every photographer is up for.
Adam proved his mettle for maintaining professionalism and high-quality production while being pushed outside of comfort zones. When our physical needs are challenged, some might tend to break down, lose focus, or become irritable. Yet, despite the demanding conditions and workload, Adam managed to maintain his easy-going demeanor and the light-heartedness that helps him connect with subjects and bring out their best in front of the camera.
I approach my work with crew and talent as relationship building. This is not a transaction. I genuinely want to know the people that I’m co-creating with. These aren’t just my images. These are things that we’re making together. I try to invite folks into the process with me, to make it as collaborative and enjoyable as possible. I try to get to know where people are from, some of their backgrounds, and what they’re interested in. It helps to have travel time getting to our destinations, to chip away at some of that and actually have space to get to know each other before we dive into shooting.
For this campaign, Cotopaxi wanted to create Lifestyle imagery that was aspirational yet relatable. To that end, the talent for this shoot was a mix of professional models, athletes, and regular people who just love traveling. Kyle Stepp, for example, is a Paralympian and social justice advocate who is one of the company’s “Do Good Ambassadors.” Their sustainably-minded practice of “up-cycling” used fabric is unique in the apparel industry. To represent their distinction in the field, it was necessary to craft imagery that was equally unique, and could narrate the feeling that the company is trying to communicate. Adam’s use of analog film introduces those qualities in a visual form to the public.
I think some of the grittiness and imperfections in film resonated with the brand. I’m looking for a dreamlike representation of the real thing. I’m trying to romanticize things. Even if it’s in a documentary style, even if it’s brand work and it’s very commercial. I think that analog photography is really well suited for that type of work. We’re at a point where about a third of what I deliver is analog and two thirds is digital. A lot of the lifestyle imagery and the candid feeling that they’re looking for is better suited for film photography. We have to shoot some digital to make sure that we’re checking the boxes, but, on a personal level, I’m always trying to push my digital editing to look more like the colors I see in film.
No shoot of this scale and scope is without constraints and complications. Wrinkles, hiccups, and unexpected events are inevitable, especially on international projects with so many moving parts. Limited space and a lack of assistants meant Adam had to work with a minimal outfit and be extremely flexible to get the most out of every day.
The bigger the crew gets, the harder it is to do this kind of immersive travel. I think it’s a constant battle on these size productions, how do you work with the environment and create something interesting given constraints.
Adam is an avid outdoorsman and adventurer himself, accustomed to navigating the challenges of natural environments. This knowledge and experience is essential to adjust to the pushes and pulls that are inherent to this setting.
I’ve always worked in the field and on location and mostly with natural light. I’ve learned a lot about lighting through just having to read and predict where the sun’s going to move. Optimizing for time of day, prioritizing, shooting, when the light’s going to be best, holding back when it’s challenging, recognizing when it’s working and that sometimes I don’t have to force it has been a good lesson. It’s a constant conversation with the environment of recognizing what’s being offered to me by this location and how I can make something interesting within those constraints. I have to react to the environment constantly.
With the desert sun at their backs and the work completed, Adam could reflect on lessons learned from a job well done. Every production is a moment to learn and grow both professionally and personally. The new challenges, environments, and people met along the way are what make this work both special and rewarding. On his journey through the Atacama, Adam found himself remembering old lessons and discovering new ways of seeing.
This is just a constant reminder to myself and maybe a mantra of sorts, but part of what works for me on these productions and why I’m good at operating in these spaces is that I am able to keep things upbeat and connect with people, and keep them comfortable over an extended project. And yet I have to be clear and direct about my needs and what’s gonna yield the best imagery. It’s this push and pull of accommodating the people I’m with and their needs and keeping them happy, comfortable, and in the right headspace, but also advocating for what I recognize is going to deliver the end result that we’re all trying to create. As I continue to mature and grow as a photographer, I just continue to get more and more comfortable about being really vocal about what I think will really work and what won’t work.
In the end, a production like this is both a personal and professional journey. Travel opens our eyes to new cultures, perspectives, and parts of ourselves. Adam found that the experiences and people he met, helped him not only grow as a commercial photographer, but introduced him to new ways of seeing.
While we were camping at the sand dunes, an astronomer and astrophotographer friend of the local production crew brought his big telescope. It was a really big full moon that night which is challenging for star photography, but it was beautiful and you could still see different constellations. The astronomer was explaining to all of us that the indigenous population in this part of Chile described constellations by the negative space between stars. The shapes that they saw in the sky were the dark shapes and not the stars. As we processed that as a group, it struck us that there are entirely different ways of seeing that reveal themselves when you’re traveling in new places.
Photography, travel, and, of course, advertising shape and influence our perspective on the world. New experiences, environments, and people can enrich our lives and teach lessons we could never imagine. Adam’s journey through the Atacama for Cotopaxi’s Fall ’23 campaign was more than a mere advertising campaign. It was a humbling affirmation a bold choice to step out on his own into the world of photography.
I’m so grateful that I get to go see new parts of the world and interact with new cultures that I wouldn’t get to otherwise if it wasn’t for this work. And I think it’s so important to me to continue to maintain an open mind and to try to see things from new perspectives, both as a photographer, but also just as a human being. I’m grateful that my work allows me those opportunities to learn from different people and different cultures that are far away.
See more of Adam’s work on his website.
Credits
Producer: Lauren Steele
Art Director: Ainslie Perlmutt
Production Company: Puna de Atacama
Videographer: Duncan Wolfe
Further Reading
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