Little Hills

Monday August 22nd, 2011

Our Los Angeles-based photographer Jesse Rieser has been quite busy lately. From establishing himself as a talented commercial shooter, to tackling several personal projects, to winning a PDN Annual award, Jesse’s photography has been hitting some pretty high notes. Most recently, he was lucky enough to have one of his personal projects evolve into a commercial job—one were he could finally apply his landscape sensibilities to advertising work.

The assignment was for M&C Saatchi‘s newest New Mexico State Tourism campaign and would once again have Jesse working alongside art director Ron Tapia. Jesse considers Ron an extremely talented designer and conceptor, so he was excited to get to work with him again. Ron had seen some of Jesse’s dream-like personal landscape shots and thought he would be the perfect photographer for the campaign. The theme of which centered around,

Showcasing the modern art and the natural beauty the state has to offer. The agency chose Georgia O’keeffe’s 1935 painting, Ram’s Head White Hollyhock and Little Hills, to symbolize modernity and the natural beauty of Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, NM. The colorful terrain of Ghost Ranch inspired some of the painter’s most famous landscapes and she once wrote: “[the] cliffs over there are almost painted for you — you think — until you try to paint them.”

So Jesse got to work trying to paint the landscape with his camera. First though, he had to find a landscape in the Ghost Ranch area that would match up with Georgia’s painting,

Ghost Ranch is a massive space. Basically we had guides/chaperones from the O’keeffe foundation come with to give us their suggestions and to make sure we were not compromising any of the park’s landscape.  At first it seemed like a daunting task—trying to find an exact match when we all knew there was not one.  We were able to find something close enough knowing our digital artist, Ralph Hillert and Mainworks would be able to match the horizon lines.

After finding their location, Jesse got to work on their next challenge, matching up the background in a way that worked with the depth of the painting. Jesse and the crew rigged the easel at an angle and height so that it matched the horizon line from the camera’s perspective. “The easel and canvas ended up being propped up 12 feet, which was fun dealing with the storm.” Oh yeah, I forgot to mention a monsoon rolled in during the shoot.

The shoot continued though, through the storm, and they ended up with some sun by the end of the day. Jesse got the shot and the client was ecstatic. The shoot helped Jesse realize that, “if you stick to doing the work that you enjoy doing, bigger assignments and opportunities will come.”

- Maria