Willie Creek Pearls

As with all things Broome, tourism plays a major part in WCP’s operation; apart from farming Australian south sea cultured pearls and selling a range of pearl jewellery from 5 stores, they run a very busy tour schedule to the Pearl Farm north of Broome.

New store interiors were to feature monster light-boxes with simple images and minimal text. Broome, actually the whole of Australia’s north, is typically rendered quite saturated and colourful. I guess it says “Tropical” with several exclamation marks. It’s a look that Phil was very (very) keen to avoid. “Avoid that ghastly look please”, were his words.

The visual key was working to keep tonal values as high as possible in sympathy with the pearls. Shoot times for landscapes were limited to the first and last half hour of daylight. Unset pearls were shot under a scrim across a variety of textural backgrounds during the rest of the day.