I was commissioned by Havas Worldwide Singapore to shoot portraits of 3 volunteers from Youth Corps Singapore for their print ad campaign. The look-and-feel of the images needed to be natural and authentic, raw and in black & white – real people with real stories. The ad is a call for young people from 16 to 35 years of age to volunteer for the Youth Corps. The main activities they have right now is building community gardens for the elderly, and connecting with psychiatric patients. The volunteers for the shoot – Sharon, Sean, and Hairil – were very easy to work with. Each of them had that positive vibe that never really waned as the shoot went by, even after an hour of continuous shoot testing different poses and going in different locations. And even though the background was blurred, the tricky part was making sure it wasn’t distracting, and having a particular area appropriate for putting text in the ad layout.

Each of the resulting final portraits is actually a composite of 3 to 6 photos as the images needed to be ready for both portrait and landscape layouts. Below are the final artwork for the ad campaign.

SYC-Sean-0510-wide-lowres

SYC-Sharon-9886-wide-lowres

SYC-hairil-1232-wide-lowres

A few months later, Farhan the art director sent me images of the print ad posted in bus stops around the city. The first burst was out for only 2 weeks. The second burst of the campaign will be in June and will be in around 120 locations. It’s pretty exciting to see the works out there :)

Big big thanks to Farhan, Beer, and Dee Dee for commissioning for the shoot. Big props to Kyla for the makeup, and Reuben for the assist. And to the volunteers – Sharon, Sean, and Hairil – it was great working with you guys :)

Singapore Youth Corps

Singapore Youth Corps

Singapore Youth Corps