BEHIND THE SCENES BILLBOARD SHOOT WITH HOWIE TAMATI & DR LANCE O’SULLIVAN

Over the past year I have been helping with Photography | Visual design and branding management for respected Taranaki M?ori leader Howie Tamati during his election campaign for Te Taihauauru representing the Maori Party.  Howie is currently the president at New Zealand Rugby League and the chief executive officer at Sport Taranaki. He is a father of seven and koro (grandfather) of five.  In his day he was also captain for the Kiwis having played 24 tests.
Here is a quick video and the resultant billboard design which was created for a 4 metre billboard displayed in central New Plymouth, New Zealand. Lance O’Sullivan is a Maori doctor, practising in Kaitaia, Northland. He was declared New Zealander of the Year 2014^[2] for bringing health programmes to disadvantaged in rural areas.

I created a series of branding portraits that we could draw on throughout the campaign.  These two images below were were used for Howie’s Maori Party Campaign billboards, car signage and all branding.

I photographing Howie at his local Marae (tribal meeting house), Owae, which is also my Marae.  With this image above, I wanted to surround Howie in symbols of our heritage and culture.  To the left is a ‘pou’ or carved symbol of our great tribal chief Wiremu Kingi.  The figure of the chief compliments Howie as a leader within our community and creates a diagonal line or flow from the bottom left corner through the image to the subtle structure of the housing for the bell on the top right corner.
The idea of this image was to convey Howie’s very honest and genuine character.  We chose to capture Howie without a tie, to help convey a slightly more relaxed and approachable feel.  Below is a more formal image we used, showing a different view, being the front of Owae Mare.

Part of my role was also to oversee the design and production of photo booth frames which we used at Howie’s campaign fundraiser.  Picture here is Howie with Dr Lance O’Sullivan and wife Tracy.

Howie with his wife Aroaro and their four daughters.  This image was used as during the campaign. Each daughter contributed articles to Howie’s Facebook page, sharing stories about their dad and growing up in a kaupapa Maori environment, all fluent Maori speakers.