Corporate photography is dead – long live corporate photography

• By Jonathan Banks

Towards the end of last year I worked with DRAX Biomass at their Baton Rouge Port operation and the Morehouse Bioenergy pellet production fascility in Texas.

I was commissioned through Vismedia to photograph and capture the manufacturing process of compressed wood pellets from sustainable working forests in the U.S. south. These high density wood pellets are then used as a low carbon alternative to coal in the upgraded biomass units in their power station.

Corporate photography has changed drastically in recent times with more content being online. The annual report has been the traditional sales tool of companies, but it makes financial sense to capture images which become part of a larger media library for the client.

I have been photographing corporate photography for twenty years and have come to understand that value for money means exceptional photography delivering the companies ethos.

Corporate photography has to communicate a company’s business from the manufacturing, distribution and sales, through to the personality of the people that make that business. This is often highly diverse photography from a photojournalistic style, to portraits, studio, interior and architectural photography. The corporate photographer has to be technically competent in all fields of photography.

The knee jerk alternative for photography is to look towards stock agencies for imagery. Generic images of people working or communicating in a workspace that is not that of the companies can create doubt in the mind of the viewer and raise questions of professionalism. Commissioned, dynamic photography of a company’s activities and employees shows their individuality and personality.

A corporate photographer is not just someone who has an expensive camera who will record whatever they are shown. A corporate photographer works with the client prior to the shoot to determine what they want to capture and then will assist with the logistics of achieving this. The corporate photographer needs to understand a company’s business production so that they can come away with a set of pictures that invoke a clear strong statement about the company. Equally the photographs have to demand the attention of the viewer by catching the moment in an arresting manner. The photographs should be worthy of the many international corporate photography awards.