Steve Bronstein

Steve is a New York based photographer who covers a wide range of different subjects in the photography field, including advertising, products, motion, still life, animals, special effects, digital and conceptual.  But he is most famous for his Absolute Vodka photography work, The Absolut ad campaign is the longest running ad campaign ever to date. It began running back in 1980 with Steven Bronstein.

Though reliant on the traditional techniques of prop making and large format photography, like Chris Collins, Steve has equally embraced the digital age, and has combined his photographic skills with CGI (Computer Generated Imaging), but Steve has taken this further by combines the best of both worlds, whether it involves a miniature set, cgi, or both for his projects.

Throughout his career, Steve Bronstein has provided visual solutions to his clients in a manner both credible and practical. Whether it be a snow clogged road for Volkswagen, a pristine tropical beach for Coke, or an aerial view of the Kentucky Derby for Absolut, Steve has been able to produce these images effectively in the studio without the need, risk and expense of going on location. He is often thought of as a special-effect photographer, although he prefers problem-solver.

Steve's work has been honoured with many awards throughout this career, but is particularly well known for his work for Absolut Vodka. He was the original photographer for the Clio and two-time Kelly award winning campaign and has produced well over 200 product photographs. 

Today Steve works for b-hive,which is a cooperative of professional photographers Steve Bronstein, Howard Berman, Jeff Baker, Sally Gall and Brian Klutch.

Steve’s clients include; Absolut, AT & T, Bacardi, Black & Decker, British Airways, Budweiser, Camel, Coke, Disney, Ford, Fuji, Heineken, Hewlett Packard, Intel and Johnson and Johnsons.

Below are some examples of Steve’s work:

Sources of information include:

wwwbhive.com, photoserve, workbook,

 

Analysis of Images

Steve uses vibrant colour with the focus on the product being promoted, which is usually the most prominent feature of the photograph.  With the Absolut Nantucket promotion, Steve focused on decking in the shape of the vodka bottle, implying that it is at home, on the beach.

In the Absolut fantasy promotion, Steve used a backlit wine glass over which was a picture of a bottle of Absolut Vodka as if it could be poured out of the image and into the glass, with a bottle top near to the glass.

Jose Manuel Vidaurre

Like Martin Wonnacott, another product photographer, Jose likes to concentrate on splashes and movement of liquids and use these to promote his clients products.

Jose Manual Vidaurre was born in Segovia, Spain but soon moved to Venezuela.

Jose’s interest in art began early when, as a child, he painted and eventually started taking pictures as visual references for his paintings. Gradually, he moved into photography full time, but had no formal training and never worked as a photographer’s assistant, unlike a number of product photographers. Everything Jose has learned he has taught himself, leading him to develop his own techniques over the years.

Back in the early 1980’s Jose started looking at movement of liquids, who’s characteristics make them visually engaging, but very difficult to control, whilst studying electronic engineering in Caracas. He ditched his engineering training to work on special effects using 4 x 5 and 8 x 10 large format film, occasionally working with medium format film.

In an interview for Digital Photo Pro Magazine Jose said “High-speed, stop-motion photography allows you to see a world that, even though it’s real, is hidden to the human eye,” Jose explains. “The beauty of most of these moments lasts milliseconds, sometimes nanoseconds. To capture that moment that’s hidden to the human eye, and reveal its freshness and beauty—it’s a work I love. The challenge is to get the right moment. It’s never an easy task; you have to really like it, otherwise it becomes frustrating.” Capturing that moment again and again and again so that, to his clients, one shot is indistinguishable from the next, also has helped catapult Jose to the top of his field. While the physical attributes of liquid make duplicating a shot almost impossible, he has refined his technique to such a degree that he’s able to capture near-identical variations of the original image concept because he’s so intimately familiar with the subject matter.

Today, Jose’s highly stylized splash images have appeared in global advertising campaigns for big-name companies like Procter & Gamble, Citibank, Texaco, Seagrams, Nestle, Bacardi, Anheuser-Busch, American Express, Mattel, Kellogs, Telcel-Bellsouth, Duracell, Del Monte, Equal, Honda, Ford, Heinz, SC Johnson, Gatorade, Absolut, Warner Lambert, Schering Plough, Aga, Nabisco, Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, Kraft, Knorr, Max Factor, Pantene, Secret, Hilton, CocaCola, Tropiburger, Unisys, General Electric, Miller, St. Pauli Girl, Sony, Show Business, Shick, Rolex, Tecate, Quaker, Siemens, Fanta, Unilever, Oreo, Lux, Oster, Old Parr, NCR, Bavaria Group, Constacia Group, Parmalat, United Destillers, Pirelli, Brahma, Something Special, Polar Group, Head, and Artibel.

Jose’s work has earned him a slew of accolades, including IPA Photographer of the Year in Special Effects 2004, with a long list of 56 award certificates and trophies from three continents including The London International Advertising Award (3 consecutive years), The New York Festivals, FIAP, IPA, The Color Awards, Prix de la Photographie Paris and Creativity Annual among others and solidified his reputation as a master of this specialized technique.

Below are some examples of Jose’s work:

Sources include:

Production Paradise, Digital Photo Pro, www.jmv-studio.com and www.photographers.com.

Analysis of Images

Jose has used vibrant colours and water splashes and water spurting, which is something that always captures people's attention. Often his images have coloured backgrounds, sometimes computer generated.

Jose's images are eye catching, which is very important in advertising because it has to grab the viewer's attention within a second so the viewer continues to look at the image, and even remember the image, rather than turn the page or ignore the image completely.

The product is the main subject on the image, concentrating the attention on the product.

Martin Wonnacott

When Martin was young he started photographing and experimenting with bottles and liquids, trying to capture splashes of liquids on film.

Martin got his first job as an assistant working in a studio when he was 17.  Whilst working in the studio Martin watched how drinks were photographed, and became intrigued how technical everything was.

Martin’s speciality is liquids, alcoholic beverages to be precise with bottles, glasses pouring and splashing for some of the most prolific advertisers in the world.  They call on Martin to create striking and colourful compositions that the views can almost taste.

In an interview for Digital Photo Pro magazine (an American photographic magazine) Martin’s advice to other photographers who are striving to create striking images like his own Martin’s advice was simply “Keep it simple. Over lighting is the biggest problem, I think people throw too much light at a subject.  Less is more, but many people are afraid of that”

Coming from an Englishman who divides his time between his two New York and London studios, this advice comes from somebody who has proven that he knows what he is taking about.  In fact, when I was shooting products in the college photographic studio, Steve Davies was always advising the use of subtle lighting of the products and not to over light them.

With one of Martin’s projects, for the Baileys drink, Martin explained, in the Digital Photo Pro interview, “the Baileys shoot was very complex, it had to look like Baileys; there couldn’t be any question.  The texture had to be right.  There were suggestions of using all sorts of other liquids, and there were a few other photographers in the pitch who were testing other ways you could get other liquids to look similar to Baileys.  But it worked out that we just used Baileys at room temperature.  There you go.  Stop messing around and let’s just use the real thing”. 

And looking at the picture below, as someone who occasionally has a glass of Baileys, I can say that it does look the part;

   Baileys: The perfect pour

Although Martin’s speciality is alcoholic beverages, his portfolio contains a wide range of other products.

Martin’s gear includes:

• Sinar P3 and Sinar eVolution 75H digital back

• Sinaron Digital 55mm and 90mm lenses (although Martin does carry his 28mm, 45mm, 120mm and 150mm lenses at all times).

• Profoto Pro-8a Air pack and Pro heads with reflectors and grids.

• Roll of Rosco Heavy Frost

Below is some more of Martin’s work:

 

Evaluation if Images

Martin has used strong colours in his work, in some cases against a white background.  In some of his work Martin has also used texture in varying forms from condensation on glasses to the effects on the yogurt adverts.

For me it is Martin's use of the splashing liquids that has caught my eye, in particular the classic Baileys pour (above the selection of images) and the Dove splash (column 2 row 1 of the images above) and in today's world something like that can make the difference over how long a viewer might look at an image before looking to the next.

Martin has varied his photographic angle, if you compare the image of the bottle and glass (column1 row 2), you will see he has used a high angle, looking down on the items from about 75 degrees, whereas on the Jamesons photograph, again with a bottle and glass (column 1 row 3) the camera looks from a lower angle, until we reach the classic Guinness shot (column 2 row 8) where the camera is looking up towards the top of the glass.

It is interesting on the play on the please drink responsibly theme adopted by alcohol drink manufacturers, possible to avoid a ban on advertising their goods, with the Herradura Tequila advert where the please drink responsibly, has been changed in line with the theme of the advert to read 'Fortune favours the responsible drinker'.

Martin's images are generally evenly lit.