Featured Project · Commercial Real Estate

Cushman & Wakefield

Who
Cushman & Wakefield, a global commercial real estate company with executives and employees across a national network.
Goal
My goal was to reimagine how the organization and its people appeared online without reducing employees to generic corporate archetypes.
Outcome
My assistant and I completed a production spanning five days and four cities, creating a library of 4,000 images and 150 final photographs, followed by additional executive portrait assignments.

Since 2018 | Commercial Real Estate | Events, Executive Branding, Group Portraits, Headshots

A referral brought me in to create executive portraits for Cushman & Wakefield's executive team, including the CEO and CMO, the kind of assignment where the goal isn't simply a flattering photograph, but an image that carries the weight of the role. It worked. Later that year, an internal event in Chicago followed, and with it, a bigger opportunity: help reimagine how one of commercial real estate's biggest names shows up online.

Day 5 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth. Taken in the LA office, Matt got up on a step ladder and shot down on this collaborating pair. @mcguirephoto assist
Day 1 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth. The trick with lifestyle images is to keep them natural looking - from the lighting to the poses and expressions. Matt used the reflectiion from the beautiful conference table in the Chicago office to add interest and dimension to this shot. @mcguirephoto assist @danielle_dettore MUA
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With ten days to prepare, my assistant and I planned a production spanning four cities, five locations, and five thousand miles, then executed it over five days. The result was a library of four thousand images and 150 final photographs, each featuring a real employee, seen as an individual rather than styled into a generic corporate archetype. It's one thing to photograph an executive team. It's another to make 150 different people, across a national footprint, each feel like the subject of their own portrait rather than an extra in someone else's brand refresh.

The rooftop at 225 Wacker Drive is a magical place to shoot - flowers and city views in every direction. Day 1 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA. The trick with lifestyle images is to keep them natural looking - from the lighting to the poses and expressions.
Day 2 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth. One of many shots in this St Louis, MO office. While this this was captured at noon, it was made to look as if the sun was just breaking through using a powerful strobe light with an orange gel on it. Arranging people and furniture must be done quickly so as to keep their interest. Tethering the camera to a computer helps this process because Matt can shoot and see the rest very large very quickly. @mcguirephoto assist @raelynncantrall MUA
Day 1 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth. Some of the common areas in the office feature living "green" walls that the client wanted to showcase. A strobe in the background suggests sun and obscures otherwise distracting elements. @mcguirephoto assist @danielle_dettore MUA
Day 3 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth. This image was created at a client site in the Dallas suburbs to showcase the service side of the business. Due to the scale, we needed to use the ambient light. A strobe with a colored gel to help match it to the ambient light was used to light up the subjects. @mcguirephoto assist @raelynncantrall MUA
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Day 2 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth. This is from St Louis, MO office. It is always great when the client has a talented artist on staff who can create amazing drawings on the boards in the background. While the lighting may look natural, it was anything but. At least three strobes are working to light up the room and the subjects. @mcguirephoto assist @raelynncantrall MUA
Day 2 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth. We staged several shots in this St Louis, MO meeting room with two dozen people. It was a fairly gray day outside, which required us to lean on the amazing technology in the camera and expert placement of supplemental strobes in order to keep things looking light and bright. Capturing authentic expressions in contrived situations is also a challenge with this sort of work. @mcguirephoto assist @raelynncantrall MUA
Day 3 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth. This image was created at a client site in the Dallas suburbs to showcase the service side of the business. In this case, we overpowered the ambient light and created the effect with two strobes. People are often pointing at things in these kind of photographs. It is one of just a few ways to show collaboration in a still image. @mcguirephoto assist @raelynncantrall MUA
Day 3 of a five day shoot across four cities and five locations from Chicago to LA for this global commercial real estate behemoth. All ambient light was used on this relatively long shot of staff members staged and interacting in the chairs along the windows. You can seldom beat the light in LA. No wonder everybody wants to be a photographer in that city! @mcguirephoto assist
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Cushman & Wakefield later brought me back to create executive portraits of its incoming Chief Technology Officer, a small, telling sign that the trust built during that initial production has endured.

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