Photographing Saint Laurent's Brutalist Flagship
Reed Photographic was commissioned by Saint Laurent to photograph their flagship store at 72 Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District. I led the New York shoot. This was Saint Laurent's first store anywhere to carry creative director Anthony Vaccarello's new design concept, which meant the images would introduce something new and needed to reflect that.
The interiors drew from brutalist and Bauhaus references: corduroy concrete, black mirror walls, gilded marble, custom furniture in travertine and black cosmic marble. Vintage pieces by Stickley, Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Meier, and Edward Wormley added warmth against harder surfaces.
The Brief
The brief aligned immediately with how we work. As commercial architectural and interior photographers, briefs can range from more rigid to completely open to your interpretation. In this case we were given a lot of creative freedom and the client wanted our own interpretation, not a conventional shot list.
Brutalist-inspired spaces are exactly where my personal and professional work converge. The client liked that I had honed my personal practice in similar spaces. Corduroy concrete is a material I love, whether that's part of a post-war housing estate in London or a Saint Laurent interior in New York. You can see that thread in my ongoing series But My City Was Gone and Anthony's project Concrete Reflections.
I'd also spent years experimenting with digital and film-based workflows, developing processes to emulate the film look I got when shooting on Portra 400 on a Mamiya RZ67. That was another reason I used the Fuji medium format system; it was a way to ensure my digital workflows didn't become lazy, that I was forced to slow down and stay present in the space.
That brought real value to a collaboration of this nature and helped me meet the tight press deadline because I was able to process, review, and edit as I shot.
On Location
The store was cleared of all product before we arrived. Half-day scout, one shoot day, and just two hours to deliver after the final image to meet press deadlines.
After New York, the project expanded to four more cities. I photographed Miami, while Anthony Reed, my brother and studio co-founder, shot Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Tokyo from his Shanghai base, giving Saint Laurent a consistent visual language across locations.
We've since brought a similar discipline to our work with Céline and Alaïa.
Our Approach
GFX 100ii throughout. The GF 32-64mm was well-suited to the range of spaces. The GF 30mm and 110mm tilt-shift lenses handled converging verticals and gave room for unique compositions. The GF 80mm, 110mm, and 50mm primes covered the majority of the shoots.
A circular polariser was essential for minimising unwanted reflections on mirror walls and polished surfaces without dulling material quality.
Arca cube head on a Gitzo tripod, the precision it offers across all three axes was essential for the kind of considered, measured compositions the space demanded.
The Results
Being trusted by a brand like Saint Laurent to bring my own interpretation as a commercial interior photographer with a fine art background, and having that trust reflected in the work, was very rewarding. Published worldwide, with coverage in V Magazine, WWD, Haute Living, Flaunt, and others.
You can see our full Saint Laurent luxury interior photography project here.
