My favourite types of projects are the ones where you get to collaborate with other artistically minded people. This can take many forms, from working with pure artists to create interesting conceptual portraits or other works. To fashion designers where I get to put my own style and ideas into the photography of the designes they have created all the way to collaborating with architectural designers both interior and exterior to showcase their spaces in just the way both you and they envisioned.
The last is, quite obviously my favourite as I am quite partial to interior design photography. It seems to be my zen space when making photos.
Enter the wonderful people at LW Designs . This firm of talented individuals contacted me to photograph not one but two of their newly designed restaurant spaces in Ho Chi Minh City.
First up was Lai A contemporary Chinese restaurant that they created with a little more flair than the usual for this type of venue. Typically Chinese restaurants use a lot of red in their designs as red is a lucky colour in Chinese culture. At Lai however, the subtle use of blue throughout the interior space is what really grabbed my attention. It fit well and was nicely understated. It gave the restaurant a cool feeling that is always welcome from the sweltering Saigon temperatures.
The second restaurant we photographed was Prime XXI A much more classic and BOLD venue. To me it felt more like a 1960’s or 50’s gentlemens club or cigar lounge. Think lots of rich leather furniture, heavy wood and warm but spotted table lighting. It was like stepping back in time in a way. Of course, the mirrored wine cellar hallway was a very cool feature as well. One that I may have taken a little too much time to photograph as it was so visually interesting.
Overall working with LW Design was a very rewarding experience. It is always nice when a client sees eye to eye on your vision for their space. Of course, it also helps when a client just happens to design things that are right in line with your own personal esthetic as well.
