Object 004 — Brogue.
The brief.
Aldo & Marlow make forty objects a season — shoes, bags, small leather goods — and wanted them photographed as a family rather than a list. One black backdrop, one light, every object given the same ten minutes of attention. The brogue led the series because it is their oldest pattern and, frankly, the hardest to light without killing the leather.
The approach.
Black-on-black is an exercise in edges. We lit a strip softbox down each side of the table and flagged everything else, so every object drew itself in two bright lines against the dark. The setup never changed across two days — only the objects did — which is why forty separate still lifes read as one continuous series.
Each object got a detail frame as well as a hero: stitching, hardware, the inside stamp. Those details now run as the brand's packaging inserts, which pleased the founders more than the heroes did.
- Client
- Aldo & Marlow, London
- Service
- Catalogue stills · objects
- Shoot
- 2 days · Berlin table
- Kit
- PhaseOne XF · 100mm · strips
- Frames
- 40 objects · hero + detail each
- Delivery
- Site, packaging inserts, press
One series, three seasons of packaging.
The object series anchors Aldo & Marlow's site and three seasons of packaging inserts. The setup is now a standing booking: every new object joins the family on the same black table, under the same two strips.
