Who's Who: Wilson Hennessy
How you got into photography…
My mum entered a photo I had taken into a competition when I was in high school. The photo was a picture of some strange statues all lined up in Melbourne. And I won! That got my attention. After that, I played around with photography for the rest of high school. From there, I went on to assist in Melbourne, Sydney and Los Angeles before breaking out on my own. Looking back, the image which started it all was a graphic image with a repetitive pattern, and although the image was originally black and white, I chose to put a blue tone over it. So, I guess that shows that I have always been drawn to color and graphic patterns!
A run---down of the most recent campaign I worked on…
I recently worked on an amazing campaign for Suzuki. I have been working with Suzuki for about 8 years and I have a great relationship with both the agency and client. When I walked into our initial meeting to talk about the job, the creative director said their idea was that Suzukis are fun to drive, so they wanted to set the TVC in a fun fair. I noticed the creative director had one of my editorial images hanging on his wall. To create that image, I chose to light the car with pinks and purples, using highlights to pick out the features while allowing the general feel to stay ‘moody.’ He then told me that he wanted their whole campaign to be based off of the feeling from this one image! And so naturally, that's what we did. We took a lighting style I had created for an editorial project and we crafted it to create some great images from the brand. The client trusted us completely, even as we lit the black car with pink and purple light. Ultimately, the director for the TVC also followed this same lighting style.
The best piece of creative work around at the moment is...
Oh there are so many great things out there at the moment! We saw some great Christmas ads this past holiday season. I think the McDonald’s carrot stick was pretty cool. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaDWM6aGTuU. Also, the Toyota C-HR flip book in The Fader was great… once I figured out why there were little illustrations on the bottom of each page!
The next big advertising trend is going to be…
Colorful Still Life and Automotive Photography
The photography I wish I had thought of is…
The amazing work of Felice Varini.
My favourite digital tool/app at the moment…
My iPhone
In a film about my life, I’d like to be played by…
The Rock or Bruce Willis. We would spend the first half of the film setting up the still life studio shoot -- it would be slow and quiet, just before the robbers break in and steal the jewelry we are shooting! The rest of the film is a fast-paced blockbuster action film. Loads more fun than the life of a photographer!
A word or phrase I overuse…
G’day Mate.
My last social media update said…
It was on Instagram, so it was a picture. But that’s 1000 words right there, apparently. Then after the photo these really exciting words appeared: New Work- The New Mazda SkyActiv 2…
My dream collaboration is…
I love that we work in an industry with so many creative people. I often get approached by people who see different things in my work than I do. They share a brief and say, “I was thinking of your work when we came up with this idea.” When creating, we take my style and apply it to their cool ideas and come up with these awesome new pictures. It’s these types of collaborations that continue to inspire me and push the boundaries of my creativity.
A piece of criticism I’ve received was...
“Your work is too colorful and happy.”
A great piece of advice I received…
Shoot what you love. The more you do that, the more your style will emulate things that you love, and then people will commission you to shoot what you love.
