If you weren’t already aware, The Beresford and Absolut have teamed up to capture the spirit of Mardi Gras, bottle it, and then serve it up for brunch every Sunday. If that wasn’t enough, the Beresford have also brought in renowned conceptual photographer Mat Baker to document and celebrate the vibrant personalities that give Beresford Sundays and the wider Oxford Street precinct its unique and colourful personality. We got the chance to shoot Mat a few questions about how he approached this assignment and his style of photography.
With individuals ranging from showgirl/DJ Victoria Anthony to drag queen Coco Jumbo the breadth of personality and talent that each of the subjects bring to the shoot could have overwhelmed an amateur photographer, however, having shot for clients ranging from Auckland Zoo to Nike, Mat has been able to bring out the one of a kind personality traits that each subject inhabits and he puts this down to “a combination of having a fantastic and talented team of people around me on the shoot and an amazing and inspirational group of people to photograph who trusted me.”
What also stands out in this series is the positivity and celebratory moment that has been captured. While that’s no surprise with the reputation that Beresford Sundays has, Mat also ascribes this outcome to the philosophy that he brings to each shoot, “I love the feeling of making a true connection with someone and having a great time while doing that. When you get this right you can then capture the essence of the subject’s individual personality.”
Bringing with him his penchant for masterfully crisp images that speak volumes without being cluttered, Mat’s use of colour during the shoot and afterwards has highlighted the essence of what each individual stands for.
“With this concept we wanted to embrace the importance of colour and personality, so my lighting and retouching was engineered towards this in a way to accentuate each attribute.”
Running until the end of March, this exhibition of Mat’s work and Beresford Sundays is not to be missed.
