We get to go behind the scenes and learn the secrets that make our modern world work. A beautiful example of this is the project we shot for Padnos. Often, I work with companies that want a custom image library with a lot of variety and options. A library that becomes the story of their culture, their livelihood, and what they believe in. This is something we’re good at. I enjoy shooting large libraries of images and through the editing process the voice of a brand will emerge. I shoot with intention knowing what the final crop needs are and how the imagery is going to interact with what the designer is creating.

While shooting the stock library we collected objects from several Padnos properties that represent all the types of goods they can recycle. We explored endless collections of plastics, papers, and patterns. As we worked, giant machines clawed at metal and apocalyptic ruins were neatly organized, tamed by men and women and giant blow torches dwarfed by the enormous jet turbines they’re slicing up.

We then took the objects we gathered while creating the image library and brought them back to the studio for a typography study. I teamed up with the talented Mimi Ray to create zero through nine, which were then used for full page imagery in a book that tells the story of this smart company.