fear no mess : annabelle breakey, m/h and method
Annabelle Breakey teamed up with the amazing creative agency MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER to shoot Method’s recent Fear No Mess campaign. The assignment was nine wild and wacky shots portraying a series of “messes,” the kind any active family might find themselves in.
It was a big crazy day of shooting at Annabelle’s studio in San Francisco. They had ice cream sandwiches, silly string, ketchup, sparkly purple glue, grass-stained socks, cotton candy, caramel apples, corn dogs, Cheetos, and a very unfortunate incident with a strawberry-filled crepe.
“All the concepts were in place and there were some loose parameters—the agency had these crazy ideas—but it was up to us to make them happen in a whimsical way. We basically had free reign to execute their ideas,” said Annabelle.
Food stylist Abby Stolfo brought in a cotton candy machine and set about making a barrel of candy apples and corn dogs. “It was a food fest,” said Annabelle.
Meanwhile prop stylist Emma Star Jensen was dealing with the silly string. “Silly string doesn’t do what you want it to do—it doesn’t do what you think it’s going to do—but it was so much fun to work with. I think that photo is my favorite,” said Annabelle.
“There was silly string everywhere, there were Cheetos everywhere. Everybody had Cheeto hands. Photography can be quite serious sometimes and it’s really intense. Our whole goal was just to act kid-like and make these images in a really playful way, it was so liberating.”
The images were used on Method’s website and social media, and have gotten a really positive response.
“We had a huge crew and it was are really long and challenging day. But really it was also so rewarding because the team was just great to work with and it was fun to be in this playful environment where you could just make the biggest mess you want.”
When I reached out to creative director Tony Zimney to ask about shooting with Annabelle, here was his response:
“I can’t say enough good things about Annabelle. She was quick and efficient and the photos turned out marvelously. We shot nine setups over the course of the day involving talent and food and retouching and she turned everything around in lightning speed. The shots weren’t easy. Shooting spilled food from underneath a plane of glass and catching ketchup flying through the air. But Annabelle was kind and collaborative and made every photo look better than we could’ve hoped. She was the perfect partner to make messes look beautiful and artistic. I can’t wait to work with her again.”
A huge thank you to Tony, Joel, Molly and Michelle from MTZH for the fantastic opportunity to collaborate. We can’t wait to work with YOU all again.