Bridger Valley Bank·2022
Annual report photography for a regional bank
Nine branches across three counties, eighteen environmental portraits, and a brief that said the word authentic once and then never again.
The bank's previous annual report used stock photography of people in suits shaking hands in a lobby that does not exist. The new marketing director wanted the actual branches and the actual tellers.
Four days, nine towns, roughly six hundred miles. Two portraits per branch plus interiors, shot during business hours so the pictures have customers in them.
Every portrait was made at the person's own desk or window with one light and the room's own fixtures left on. It takes about eleven minutes each once you stop trying to make a bank look like an office park.
Eighteen portraits ran in the report and the bank licensed the set for three years of recruiting material. They have called back every year since.
Crowd along the avenue. Jack Downey, Office of War Information, 1944, Library of Congress.
Town scene, October. Dorothea Lange, 1939, Library of Congress.
Carts on a working street. Bain News Service, 1911, Library of Congress.
Storefront, midday. Bain News Service, 1900, Library of Congress.
Rail line above the avenue. Bain News Service, Library of Congress.
Water from the street pump. Bain News Service, 1910, Library of Congress.
Saplings waiting to go in the ground. Bain News Service, 1908, Library of Congress.- Corner of H and 9th. Farm Security Administration, Office of War Information, Library of Congress.
