Knowing what Maryland-based conceptual photographer Clark Vandergrift had done with his stunning— ”Tree People” series, the ad agency Planit, knew he would be a perfect fit for their new client. The Planit creatives were working on a campaign for the Law Offices of Evan K. Thalenberg — ”a team of highly regarded lawyers who represent Baltimore City teens and young adults struggling with learning and behavior issues as a result of childhood lead paint poisoning.” Thalenberg comes to Planit to help them stand out and grab the attention of their target audience.
With their concept nailed down, Planit came to Clark to execute it with his usual conceptual and cinematic style. The concept was somewhat simple, counting on striking images of faces, crumbling, against black backgrounds.
According to Clark, the shoot itself was quite simple: solid black set, black wardrobe. He says “all we really had to do was make sure the talent fit the bill and get them to project that look on set.” The real challenge came after the shoot with the retouching, which Clark handled himself,
I do my own retouching except when things get too busy for me to take it on. The concept was to have the cracked skin in shadow. This look naturally suits itself to a boy’s/ man’s face. But when you start shadowing a female’s face it can look very 5 o’clock shadow-ish.
However, in the end, it wasn’t the females that gave Clark the most trouble. He warns, “When you have a teenage boy shave for the first time on your set, make sure he gets everything. Peach fuzz is a pain to remove in post!”
Clark pulled off the looks though, creating exactly what Planit had in mind. The client loved the final images and Clark has received a lot praise on the ads already. Planit is running the images across Baltimore at bus shelter stops, door hangers and on the web.