Edward Loh shoots major new historical campaign for HSBC, via J Walter Thompson HK
Top Singaporean photographer Edward Loh has recently completed a major campaign for HSBC, via their ad agency J Walter Thompson Hong Kong.
Loh started the project in the last quarter of 2014 and it required a complex process to combine different eras into one image by carefully merging past historic images to the present.
The selection of the vintage photos was difficult as they needed to be ultra high resolution as the final application was to appear as huge media print outs. Once the vintage images were selected and approved by HSBC and lawyers, Loh started work.
“First we need to identified the actual locations of the vintage photo, as these photo were taken from a period of early 1900 it is a challenge to find the exact location or where it was taken,” said Loh. “After much researched and debated, we finalized the location and started to do our ground work of recee. All the locations we looked into posses different challenges, it could be lighting, road condition, layout of space and more.
Round two of preproduction was meetings with agency and client to lock down every aspect of the shoot.
“There were two factors that might change the course of the shoot – the weather and the massive umbrella protest that was occurring at the time in Hong Kong,” said Loh. “The weather in Hong Kong can change drastically within hours. The other issue was one of the main shots was located within the Central District. For us to get permission and logistic was a nightmare at this sensitive time within the protest site.”
During the retouching stages, it was like a puzzle to fit every pieces in and make the two eras come to life. The five images in the campaign focus on the area of Transportation, Finance, Education, Housing and Port.
Credits
Agency: J Walter Thompson Hong Kong
Simon Welsh – Executive Creative Director
Simond Chew – Head of Art
Christopher Chan – Creative Director
Matthew Parry – Business Director
Roll Gwyn-Jones – Business Director
Tommy Tai – Planning Director
Lauren Sife – Business Manager
Photographer – Edward Loh
Digital Imaging – Edward Loh
Production – Shots Creations Pte Ltd
