EXPERTISE

Glue is a pioneer in the world of photography. After a major national bank hit a wall when it came to finding suitable diverse images for use in their promotional campaigns—stock houses are still playing catch-up—their brand team asked our team to help create a library of proprietary images promotional managers could use to promote a range of mortgage products. Glue cast, produced, shot, and retouched a groundbreaking library of diverse images of real-life people, including Latinx and African-American families, same-sex male and female couples, and a trans-inclusive couple—the first ever for a national bank.

The brand team assumed that we would identify diverse candidates first and then cast selected models into family groups and couples. While this approach is well-accepted and may work for conventional photo projects, we didn’t think it would be right for this assignment. Our conviction was that synthesizing couples and families would sacrifice authenticity—especially for the LGBTQ+ couples we were shooting. That’s where the pioneering part of the project came in. Glue pushed to go beyond real-people casting to casting real couples and real families. We also interviewed the selected couples and families prior to the shoot to find out what made them click and understand how they spent their free time. With this backgrounding, we made room for scenarios that were personal and authentic. For Maine and Ayesha, we included shots in the kitchen (Ayesha is a chef) and in the mud room repotting plants, to scenes with Bennett and Garrett playing with their tiny pup. And we made history with Kenyatta and Uriah, shooting the first trans-inclusive couple for a national bank. The results speak for themselves: you can’t miss the intimacy of the couples and the chemistry between family members. In addition to real-people casting, Glue shoots video, and creates CGI animation, as well as testimonials. See how real-people casting resulted in a standout library of images.