We’re so honoured to have photographed the making of a public large scale art installation by Indigenous artists Niap (Nancy Saunders) from Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, Quebec, and Olinda Reshijabe Silvano from Lima, Peru. This installation is a part of a larger project, from the press announcement: “Arctic/Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity, an expansive curatorial program originated by the Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge. Curated by Gerald McMaster, the mural is a collaboration between Indigenous artists Niap (Nancy Saunders), and Olinda Reshinjabe Silvano who respectively hail from these two regions.”

We spent a few days with the artists as they worked from their base at OCAD creating the mural from beginning to end. It’s always interesting and fun to see other artists as they work, and even more so in this capacity; two very different artists, with some of a language barrier, collaborating. As much as our assignment is to photograph the process of this mural being created it was important to us to not be too intrusive and disrupt their workflow so we took turns shooting from afar, only seldomly using flash, and every so often choosing the right moment to get in close for more detail focused shots.

Upon completion the mural was photographed, printed in a more weather-proof paper, and enlarged to 12 x 8 metres. The installation is located on the west facing wall of Kerr Hall at Gould Street and Nelson Mandela Walk. Read more about the project on TMU’s site here and about the Arctic/Amazon on the Wapatah site here.

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In TRUTH, PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY ISN’T OUR FORTÉ BUT WHEN YOU HAVE PRODUCTS THIS BEAUTIFUL IT’S HARD TO SAY NO TO SHOOTING THEm!

Raónraon is a womxn & Indigenous owned business that creates these stunning handcrafted beaded earrings and when they approached us to photograph their spring collection we were thrilled! With gold accents this collection was inspired by the beauty of nature and made with an abundance of passion and care, so we too wanted to incorporate that with the ‘lifestyle’ photos while still providing a ‘studio’ option against the red silk.

In truth this was our first shoot in a long time given the pandemic and restrictions so we were rusty.. We knew when we saw the earrings in person that a direct, strong, natural light would be best to showcase the intricate features of each earring; the different textures, sizes, tones of gold, etc. We shot against the red backdrop first, which is both a prominent colour in Indigenous cultures, as well as something that offered a complimenting contrast to the gold/warm tones of the earring themselves.

The next ‘nature’ set up took a while to build and was interesting to do (said by people who are better with other people than they are with things lol). We shot at home so we used what we had around which, like so many throughout the pandemic/lockdown, is plants. Fortunately this worked out though considering the collection was inspired by nature! While we wanted to shoot the earrings outside in a more nature-y environment it was difficult to find the perfect spot where we could prop the earrings up while still including a few different other elements to the ‘set’. So we kept it all inside and used what we had to build it up.

The important part of product photography that we had to remind ourselves about while shooting this: shoot as you build! Every element that we brought into the frame we took a photo of; first with just the vines + earrings, then vines, dried flowers + earrings, then vines, dried flowers, dried petals + earrings, so on and so forth. Eventually we got a set up that we really enjoyed and we rotated the earrings out as we made minor adjustments (for propping them up) in between takes.

While we don’t have any plans on switching to product photography full time, this was definitely a fun challenge for us and something we look forward to doing again in the future! Thank you for this wonderful opportunity, Raónroan!

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