What if the pandemic had happened fifty years ago?
The Cologne photographer duo Sallyhateswing answered the question photographically with the Tamron lenses 28-75mm F/2.8 and 70-180mm F/2.8.
Permanent lockdown and no end in sight? At some point in the pandemic, the two creative minds of Sally-hateswing ended up with cabin fever. But there is no trace of standstill among the Cologne-based photographer duo. On the contrary: Out of boredom, Sarah and Phil are bubbling over with ideas during the forced break and use the time for creative, free projects. For a long time the two had two ideas for lifestyle shoots, which they have now simply merged with the series "MyOwn4Walls": first, a photographic journey through time to the seventies, second, a photo story about the extremely boring pandemic everyday life at home.
"For the shoot, we thought about what would have happened if the coronavirus and lockdown had happened forty or fifty years ago. Back then there was neither smartphone nor Playstation. In other words, at some point the walls get closer and closer and you don't really know what to do with yourself", Sarah describes the idea behind the shoot.
Without internet in lockdown
Said, planned and done. The Sallys hired two models who mimed a couple living through various scenarios in the staged seventies lockdown. They found the right location in the unique "Parkhotel 1970" in Michelstadt in the Odenwald.
The stylish guest house awoke in 2011 from a big sleep of almost twenty years - and like no other hotel in Germany it still exudes the flair of the seventies. Everywhere there are nooks and crannies full of curiosities.
"From floral wallpaper and orange-red curtains to the rotary dial telephone by the bed, everything is there that the pampered guest from 1970 expects," says the hotel's website. The highlight of the room is the "James Last Suite", in which the band leader and arranger stayed during his visits to the Odenwald.
Unique ambience
"The suite served as a living room backdrop, in which our two models passed the time with knitting and weaving”, says Sarah. "Occasionally they watch TV, but there they could only switch back and forth between three channels. Anyway: Televisions with remote control already existed in the seventies."
The best thing: Due to the lockdown, the hotel was completely empty at times. The photographer duo was able to draw on unlimited resources and there were hardly any limits to their creativity. However, there was a challenge: The series was supposed to take place in a flat and not in a luxurious guest house. “Thus, when selecting the perspectives and image sections, we had to make sure that everything looked like our own four walls,” says Phil. However, with a little preparatory work and planning with the help of screenshots and mood boards, this task was mastered quickly.
The lens selection turned out to be helpful hereby, because the Sallys took photos with the powerful zoom lenses for Sony's full-frame cameras: Tamron 28-75 mm F2.8 Di III RXD and Tamron 70-180 mm F2.8 Di III VXD. "The advantage of the zoom lenses is that we were able to adapt the section very flexibly," says Phil. "That was particularly practical in the smaller rooms, because here we were of course restricted in the choice of location, and the ability to zoom has given us back a large part of our creative freedom."
Strong resolution performance
However, the most important criterion for the Sallys is and remains the imaging performance of a lens in order to achieve the sharpness of detail desired by the customer. The high resolution and the enormous sharpness of the photos are remarkable. "The resolution of the lens is terrific," says Sarah, who was pleased that every detail of the often very small scenes can be seen in the images. She designed a long knitted scarf especially for the shoot, on which the model continues knitting in one of the images.
Entertaining boredom
The accessory fits perfectly into the stylishly furnished rooms: Fantastically patterned wall decorations in weird colour combinations, old magazines and timeless board game classics such as Ludo and chess provided the right ambience. There were also loads of stylish clothes that made the glamorous seventies look perfect.
"The biggest challenge was to make our models look bored in a refreshing way," adds Sarah. Professional acting skills were required here, because unlike in lockdown reality, the Sallyhate-swing shoots never get boring in front of or behind the camera.
Sallyhateswing
Sarah Schmid and Philipp Johann are behind the name Sallyhateswing. The photographer duo from Cologne works internationally in the field of lifestyle and people photography.
Their goal is to present products and people in the best light possible to set the stage perfectly for their clients. Content, composition and light are thereby the three ingredients that they mix again and again.
Web: www.sallyhateswing.de