Why yes, we are drowning in paper, and yes, we would like to bring order to the chaos. Ed Gallagher can style both – like this story for Better Homes and Gardens. He made the controlled mess, and then made it right. The funny thing is, when his invoices come in they look a little like this stack. And out of that chaos, beautiful pictures.
Used with permission from Better Homes and Gardens® magazine. Copyright 2012 Meredith Corp. All rights reserved.
Ed Gallagher organizes the cover of the January issue of Better Homes and Gardens. Not that it was very cluttered to begin with, with a nice clean design, but a little style goes a long way. Photo by Cameron Sadeghpour.
Used with permission from Better Homes and Gardens® magazine. Copyright 2012 Meredith Corp. All rights reserved.
Bjorn Wallander traveled out to Northern California for Country Living to shoot this amazing home. What I love about a place like this is the combination of handmade pieces with a few store-bought elements. The sink support is custom for the space and it just looks amazing. Sebastopol gets those foggy days when you just can’t seem to catch a ray of sunlight through the ocean mist, but all the white paint adds so much light to the rooms. A home like that is meant to be photographed and this epic 10-page story really does it justice. Congrats to Bjorn on such a great editorial and kudos to the talented Rosy Strazzeri-Fridman for the styling. Rugged and refined.
The past year was a whirlwind of new projects, new friends and new faces. Below is a sampling of the images that Big Leo artists helped produce in 2011, and it represents only a small fraction of the projects that we took on. We are so grateful to be able to collaborate with so many creative people and look forward to a whole new season of making the best images come to life. Thank you everyone who was a part of so many successful teams. Happy New Year to all of our friends, clients, families and all! May 2012 bring joy and prosperity to each and every one of us!
Red and green. Milk and cookies. Hot chocolate and marshmallows. Amaryllis and poinsettia. Ed Gallagher paired up with the perennially beautiful photographer Kate Mathis for Better Homes and Gardens to bring beautiful holiday bouquets to life. This week is going to be rather hectic getting everything together for the holiday – look to the magazines for nice shortcuts to beautiful decorations. And don’t forget to stock up on hot chocolate!
The running joke around the office this past summer was that stylist Ed Gallagher was a lost elf, wandering aimlessly around in the wrong season spreading holiday cheer when no one really needed it. Like drinking egg nog on the beach. Except that everyone always needs holiday cheer – especially publishers getting ready for the big season. Christmas in July. And now all the beautiful things he created are finally getting love – like these delightful openers for Better Homes and Gardens, shot by the ‘photographer to remember‘ Dana Gallagher – and the bonus cookies by Carrie Purcell. Santa can’t wait to land at her house.
Bjorn Wallander traveled all the way upstate to Harlem for this Elle Decor story on designer Cristina Azario. I recommend reading the interview about how they actually increased the amount of living space by extending the building, adding floors, and excavating the basement. From 2700 square feet to 5000. Jaw. Floor. Not to mention just how beautiful everything looks – their goal was to let in more light since brownstones are notoriously dark. The photos do a great job of showcasing just how much light fills the rooms. Amazing on so many levels. Check out the slideshow for more images, but only if you can stand to be tortured by dreams of such a beautiful space.
Here at Big Leo, we’re starting the holiday a week early because we have way, way too much food to share. At this rate, we’re going to be making blog sandwiches into the New Year. First up, Better Homes and Gardens!
Prop stylist Ed Gallagher flew down south like a wild turkey to help bring Thanksgiving to life with Foster’s Market founder Sara Foster. Nothing like roasting turkeys in the middle of July in order to get that seasonal story! Along with photographer Peter Frank Edwards, the team went back to the basics with pumpkin and pecan pie, a juicy turkey and herb gravy. Of course, take a look at that kitchen, it is deeper than my apartment. Not sure what makes me more hungry – all that food or all that counter space.
Kid-friendly photographer Nicole Hill Gerulat spent a hectic couple of days shooting 19 toddlers with mountaineering stylist Ed Gallagher, for the new Aquatopia line. The production on a shoot like that is always so much work – finding the right team as well as great kids, it always takes more time than the shoot itself! Big Leo’s own Karen Tighe wrangled the whole group of artists and children (same skillset – also includes cats) to bring the whole project together. So many shots that day, and it turned out super sharp! Check out more over at Nicole’s blog – and for all your full service production needs, Big Leo is ready to rock!
Last year Björn Wallander traveled to the wilds of Canada to visit Sarah Richardson‘s weekend farmhouse. When we first heard about this job it was above top secret. Even after signing away our firstborn children they still wouldn’t tell us the name of the new magazine. Which is pretty comical, considering that they did have to tell us the name of the person who owned the house. At which point it was obvious that we were dealing with the biggest magazine launch of 2011, HGTV Magazine. No pressure. We’d tell you more about the shoot itself but then Hearst’s lawyers would remodel our face.
So far the new magazine has gotten a solid response. Essentially following the same model as the successful Food Network launch, Hearst and Scripps are putting a lot into the title. It really looks sharp – we hope that it will have a long life (since there are some new stories coming soon from other members of the Big Leo team). Check out some more images from the story in this slideshow, see some extra unpublished shots on Bjorn’s FB page, and be sure to look for the magazine on the newsstand. Here’s to new beginnings!
