Diageo plc
Diageo is one of the worlds leading drinks manufacturers. They produce and distribute the premium spirits and drinks universally well-known including Tanqueray, Johnnie Walker, Baileys and Guinness. The scale and breadth of their market share is enormous.
I was commissioned to capture different aspects of their iconic business: their varied distilleries, employees and brands in locations including Dublin, Edinburgh, London and Stansted. I was central to the team, involving an art director, producer and assistant. The shoots took place across a number of days due to the locations and variety of subjects.
One of the most memorable aspects of the shoots were visiting the site that makes the huge copper stills that hold the whisky during production. Claire (producer) had done the research and been sent images of the site and we were all so excited about the photographic opportunities that this location would provide. It was literally going to be workers hammering away at these copper structures to shape them, a tradition as old as the whisky itself.
When we turned up the day before to do a recce the site was pretty much empty! Nic and I looked at each other and we were told that they had just shipped most of the copper stills and we should have been here last week! After all the planning involved were stunned. But they offered to bring in an old still for the photos. Needless to say we worked our magic with careful crops and shot around the facility and came away with some lovely photos. The amount of times I’ve been told on shoots that I should have been here last week or yesterday because either the weather was better or production was better is just crazy. The life of a corporate photographer!
The Irish leg of the shoot was also really good fun. Visiting the iconic Guinness factory and the new production facility of Guinness Zero. Shooting the Baileys factory and a tasting session, where we ended up having baileys in our cup of tea instead of milk by accident!
Art director: Nic Renn
Producer: Claire Arroyo
Assistant in Scotland: Digi North
Assistant in London and Ireland: Matt Ankers