
Steve: This promotional image from a major producer of plug-in air fresheners was never used in their new "gritty" and "demographically targeted" campaign due to the fact that the product isn’t visible in the shot.
First-time campaign director/photographer, Louis Thatch, remarks, “I was very focused on including as many tangible sources of odor as possible, so I didn’t always get the unit in-frame. I asked if we could add it in post [production] but at the end of the day the whole thing was a re-shoot and all I got out of these was a mysterious infection.”
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Steve: There’s a lot of motion here, in terms of the layout of this unusual and challenging space, but also in terms of the camera man, who I believe may have been falling over, or struggling to escape at the moment this photo was taken.
As far as how much slave labor was involved in the creation of the decor, I can estimate between seventy-five and one-hundred hours, which seems all the more futile given that all of this was purchased on clearance, some place with flickering fluorescent bulbs and a soundtrack of Faith Hill blaring over the faulty speaker system at a warehouse in Decatur, Alabama.
None of that detracts from the "sassy factor," however, which is clearly off the charts. Not even looking back.

Steve: It is a testament to the power of a handsome face that I remain focused on that particular attribute of this photo, given that it is a boundless sea of the dingy and embarrassing, in which everything that has survived the fire now serves either as an ash tray, piggy bank, or combination ash tray/piggy bank.
I can barely breathe.