Carte blanche pernod ricard

Every year Pernod Ricard gives one photographer free rein to conceptualize and realize a project to accompany their annual report and to exhibit as a solo show at Paris Photo, hosted at the Grand Palais, Paris. Their only stipulation: that the artist choses 18 models from an international casting of Pernod Ricard employees/collaborators. My intent, as their chosen artist, was to bring the cast and crew to Las Vegas to create a surreal and singular road trip; one where each employee cast for the project is given the opportunity to become a character in my cinematic world for a day.

My approach to realizing this project was a combination of allowing the ambience of the locations to influence the image's direction as well as intense preproduction and research in order to have as many elements as possible ready when it came to finally photographing the work. I created an immersive set, from costumes and makeup to lighting and music, to facilitate the collaborators' entry into my unusual universe. From there I let chance and improvisation take the lead.
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Pernod Ricard's Carte Blanche was exhibited at Paris Photo in 2018

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