At the launch event for Wittner's spring/summer 18 range, Imogen Bailey, caught up with the photographer for the campaign, Catie Allen, and asked her for her thoughts on shooting footwear campaigns, how the images affect the brand and the shift to smaller social media shoots.
What elements play-in to shooting footwear? What do you look for?
Shooting footwear is similar to shooting clothing – we're selling an atmosphere, we're selling a vibe.
Particularly working with Tash [Sefton] as an influencer, you're trying to sell who she is as a person as well, so with this shoot, it's probably more [similar] to a shoot with a model because you're trying to create her personality through the images which then translate to the sales of the shoes.
You're really just trying to create that atmosphere in an environment that feels natural and that will translate to selling shoes organically and authentically.
What other impacts do your images have on the brand?
I think any photographer creates because they want to inspire people, they want to send messages to people, they want other people to feel a glimpse of how they felt when they were capturing that image.
I feel like photography is such a sharing format, because you're there for a split second and you get this beautiful moment in time.
I think the greatest measure is when your work has inspired other people – not necessarily through sales, but even through conversation, or even if somebody is walking past a store and goes, 'wow that's a really nice shot,' or any element of it like, 'that's such a beautiful location,' or, 'that's such a beautiful dress,' I think photography should never be measured in a monetary value.
It's more about how you're inspiring people and what messages you're creating.
Some other footwear brands have changed the way they advertise their shoes – instead of doing larger campaign shoots they are doing smaller Instagram campaigns – what are your thoughts on this?
I think that the traditional form of shooting campaigns is definitely changing. Even just the online presence is massive – video presence is so much bigger now than what it ever used to be.
So I think your traditional campaign doesn't really cut it anymore. You really do have to start thinking about how that's going to translate across the masses.
And yes there are lots of smaller social shoots, which I think are great. [But] I think if you're looking for quality in content, you do get a lot more quality if you have a big team working on it and its really well-thought-out content.
They're still important, there's still a large market for good, solid, large campaign, traditional format [campaigns].
We're at the age – like our generation – where we're looking at content 24/7, so I think the brands that do well are those that are constantly creating fresh content.