Hallraiser: Sportswear Brand

To ensure we hit the brief, I set two constraints for myself before the shoot: Aim for candid, authentic movement rather than stiff posing, and keep post-production editing to a minimum to maintain that raw feel. These are the initial reference pictures Martin showed me to establish his baseline:

These are shots of FrankHaveMercy's brand, all 3 candid and, at their core, simple. They're not glamorous or trying to impress the viewer in any way, but they express exactly what they need to: Here is Frank, and here is his vision.

FrankHaveMercy's work is best represented by a desire to transform trauma and life's pain into something creative. His themes are quite moody and minimalist, seeking beauty in simplicity.

A great magazine I also used as reference was Grind Magazine, a men's fashion and lifestyle magazine that captures the gritty streets of Tokyo in a candid, relatable way.

I found a few poses online that I liked and that I wanted to capture:

Then I took some notes to plan the shoot on the day.

We scouted several locations around Bristol. Due to time constraints, we pivoted to a local, accessible spot that matched the aesthetic we were looking for. The weather was gloomy, which was perfect for what we wanted to capture.

Choosing this specific location was deliberate. It was quiet, which gave me the space to experiment, make mistakes, and take my time finding the right angles. We also supplemented the urban shots with a few taken at home to capture a slightly different texture.

FrankHaveMercy's pictures are simple. And on the street, you cannot afford to carry a complex lighting setup. So I opted for a simple off-camera flash to illuminate both dark indoor car parks and act as a fill light for the outside.

Since we're going for an editorial, distorted street look, all shots were taken with my wide-angle zoom lens. While I wanted to maintain the constraint of minimal editing, I still needed to give the final images a slightly editorial feel. Instead of heavy retouching, I focused on increasing the contrast, adding subtle film grain, and slightly reducing the temperature.

Here are some of the final images given for use in Hallraiser's Instagram and website: