THE 2022 AAF BUFFALO AWARDS
THE 2022 AAF BUFFALO AWARDS
Sometimes it only takes the seed of a great idea to get me interested in a project. And I think that deep down, the team at Mower knew that when they asked me to create a series of portraits to promote the 2022 AAF Buffalo Awards show.
All it took to convince me was one word — Whodunnit?
My head filled with memories of Jonathan Lynn's film version of Clue, the great parlor scenes in classic detective novels, and modern interpretations of the genre like Rian Johnson's Knives Out — there was a lot to sink my teeth into here. Beyond all the fabulous inspiration media I would get to dive into, I was excited to create some entertaining character-driven portraits of some of my local advertising community colleagues.
We based the characters in this series on various tropes from the ad world. For example, the writer became the intimidating Ms. Whitepaper, the agency intern became the murderous Anna Prentice, and the video producer became the perhaps too volatile auteur Rolland Cut. We got to play with several ideas pulled from sources like Murder On The Orient Express, Seven, and the aforementioned Clue.
We shot all the portraits, a large group composite, and several other ancillary images in a single day at the Buffalo Club. This sizeable private club has been operating in the city for over one hundred and fifty years. The building is gorgeous and was the perfect setting for the little mystery we were producing.
You can see the whole awards program book here. And be sure to check out all of the winners (I may be named in there once or twice... but we'll talk about that in a future post!)
