Joe Wigdahl 15/2/21 Joe Wigdahl 15/2/21

ORIGIN Energy: Griffith Drone Commercial

Origin Energy asked Joe Wigdahl to shoot a motion spot featuring a new large solar panel installation on a shopping centre in Griffith, NSW Australia.

Origin Energy: Griffith Solar
Directed and shot by Joe Wigdahl
Editing by Cloud Herd Films

A few months ago, Origin Energy asked me to shoot a commercial of a new, large solar installation in the large rural town of Griffith, New South Wales. This is my first full motion ad that I’ve directed and shot and also my first motion spot featuring drone footage that I shot. It took several trips over several months to capture the installation and completion and many, many hours of driving to get back and forth from this distant country town.

Joe Wigdahl 8/2/18 Joe Wigdahl 8/2/18

Folsom Prison and THE WORK Documentary

This year a documentary called The Work was released about a prison-therapy program in Folsom State Prison in California. The documentary follows a group of men from the outside who join a circle of maximum security inmates for 4 days of intense group therapy work. The film focuses on 3 men from the outside as they sit in a circle with other outside men and maximum security inmates and follows the jarring emotional journey that the group therapy work takes them on. I was asked by the director Jairus McLeary to be the stills photographer and an extra cameraman as part of the crew that went in to film one of these 4 day therapy retreats at Folsom Prison. I shot hundreds of images over those days documenting the group process as well shooting portraits of many of the individuals who participated.

My introduction with the Folsom Prison experience came about purely by chance. I met Jairus McLeary -the future director of The Work- in 2000 when Jairus McLeary and I were waiting tables together at a restaurant in the college town we lived in. We became pretty good friends and that year I spent Thanksgiving at his parent’s house. That’s when I met Jairus’ whole family, who all seem to be involved in some way even back then with Inside Circle Foundation’s work at Folsom Prison. Jairus’ dad James McLeary is one of the lead facilitators with Inside Circle and Jairus’ brothers went on to be his collaborators in making the film. At some point in my relationship with the family James and Jairus suggested that I try going to Folsom. I didn’t really know much about what the experience was about and they didn’t really offer up too much information about it other than vague anecdotes that Jairus would share about “this incredible process” he would take part in. For some reason I simply trusted them and took this leap forward into something I didn’t really know much about or what to expect.

In 2006 I went to Folsom Prison with the Inside Circle Foundation as an initiate, surrounded by strangers from the outside and the inside and I more or less unwittingly began a process that completely changed my life. I walked in a line into the chapel with other men from the outside and stood in a circle facing inmates, some of whom seemed to be just as in the dark as I was about what to expect. The next 4 days were the most transformative 4 days of my life. I walked into a room that became a safe space for the most intensely profound stories, emotions and experiences that I had ever encountered. There was something in the process too that I discovered for myself and that was learning how to be of service and support to someone else, outside of personal judgement. No one in that chapel, from the inside world or out, was there to hear my opinions. Because I had no idea what I was doing, I just did my best to shut up and listen to others and be of support in any way I could. I screwed up a few times but that seemed to be part of the process as well. Everyone got a chance to be heard, to do their work, to support and be supported. When it was my turn, I was challenged in a way that I had never thought possible and somehow got through it with men from the outside and inside by my side.

I consider going to Folsom the single most important decision of my life because it began a process that completely changed the direction of my life afterwards and opened the door to all the other important decisions I would end up making. It put me on a path of change that led to me examining what I valued in my life, what was working in my life vs. what wasn’t and how I fit in the world. It led to me meeting and marrying my wife, becoming a father, moving to a different country and pretty much who I became after that experience. I went back in 2008 and had a very different but very rewarding experience then too. It should be noted that there has not been a single prisoner who has gone through the Inside Circle Foundation program and Folsom prison who has gotten out of prison has ever returned.

I’m not sure when Jairus and his family began the process of trying to make the documentary happen but by 2009 everything had finally fallen in place for them to film. In 2009 the documentary crew went in to film the process which has been happening twice year for almost 20 years.

After 8 years, due to a variety of reasons for delays, the film was finally released in 2017 to much acclaim. It has won several awards in major film festivals around the world including 2017 Best Documentary at SXSW. It has earned 100% from Rotten Tomatoes and 4/5 stars from RogerEbert.com and IMDB to name a few. Follow the links below to watch the trailer and learn more about the film and the Inside Circle Foundation.

Watch the full movie of THE WORK here. Website for THE WORK. Facebook for THE WORK.

Learn more about the Inside Circle Foundation.

Joe Wigdahl 9/10/17 Joe Wigdahl 9/10/17

Ad Campaign: Mistubishi ASX and Outlander

I recently had opportunity to shoot images of the new Mitsubishi ASX and Outlander in a car campaign for the Sydney agency Richards Rose. I spent a week in Melbourne working on the shoot, shooting alongside a large TVC crew and taking the cars off whenever I had a chance to shoot whatever I could grab. It was a lot of fun and the weather was surprisingly wonderful for Melbourne in the winter.

Client: Mitsubishi
Agency: Richards Rose
Producer: Katie Morton
CD: Christopher Johnson
Sr AD:George Bassiakos

Joe Wigdahl 1/3/17 Joe Wigdahl 1/3/17

Campaign: Destination Gold Coast

A campaign I just shot for Gold Coast Tourism has just started to roll out. We set out to look past the party reputation that the Gold Coast is well known for and tried to capture the sense of how beautiful the Gold Coast and the area around the GC really is. There will be more shots from the campaign to come but this is what I've got so far...

Client: Gold Coast Tourism
Agency: JWT Sydney

Joe Wigdahl 11/8/16 Joe Wigdahl 11/8/16

AD Campaign: Australian NBN

I just shot an image for a new campaign for the Australian National Broadband Network. The shoot was part of a larger TVC ad featuring a story of two deaf women who take advantage of the new high speed network by chatting (through sign language) over video.

Client: Australia NBN Agency: BWM Dentsu

Joe Wigdahl 4/11/15 Joe Wigdahl 4/11/15

VicHealth- Team Up Fitness

I recently shot for VicHealth's new campaign "Team Up!" with DDB which is focused on getting people started on a healthy fitness regimen in the state of Victoria. We wanted to take the intimidation factor out of beginning an exercise regimen and emphasise the social component of doing something like joining a yoga class or running with a friend. I shot stills as well as directed 2 short spots for the campaign.

Client: VicHealth- Team Up

Director: Joe Wigdahl

Camera / Editor: Ash Koek

Art Director: Niki Horan

Agecy: DDB Melbourne

[vimeo 125544198 w=500&h=280]

[vimeo 125544197 w=500&h=280]

Joe Wigdahl 23/12/14 Joe Wigdahl 23/12/14

Red Rooster's New Look

The Australian food chain Red Rooster has started to go with a totally new look. Alongside a totally new design of their restaurants they're also going with a new look for their ad imagery. I was asked to shoot some shots for print alongside a TVC crew that was filming some new spots for Red Rooster.

Joe Wigdahl 14/5/14 Joe Wigdahl 14/5/14

OPSM ad Campaign in Napier, New Zealand

I recently wrote a post about an ad campaign that I shot for the eyewear retailer OPSM in Busselton, Western Australia with Saatchi & Saatchi. The images below are just a few of the shots that I did for the brand to tell some of the stories of the everyday people in Napier, New Zealand. I love New Zealand- aside from having incredibly beautiful landscapes the people there are quite beautiful and agreeable in their own right. We met a huge range of people from architects, designers, farmers, fisherman, tractor mechanics, vintners and even a Scottish bag piping corps and I felt blessed to be able to meet these people, hear their stories and shoot in such an intimate way. We shot there for a week and I averaged 16 hour days and took portraits of over 50 people and plenty of landscapes and I was exhausted in the end but really had great shoot.

Portrait of young woman bag piper and pipers playing

Landscape panoramic of Napier, New Zealand

Portrait of mother and young baby smiling

Man jogging on Te Mata Mountain, New Zealand

Portrait of small scale train conductor repairing steam train.

Portrait of Architect working on drawings with a lamp and table

The town and its surrounds are an interesting mix of 1930s art deco architecture and farms offering fresh picked cherries, figs, berries and veggies everywhere we went. I ate some of the freshest, tastiest food I've ever had and we felt welcomed by friendly faces everywhere we went. If you're ever there, be sure to check out the lovely people at Aroha and Friends.

Joe Wigdahl 12/3/14 Joe Wigdahl 12/3/14

OPSM Ad Campaign in Australia and New Zealand

I recently spent several weeks traveling and working with Saatchi & Saatchi on a new ad campaign for the eye wear retailer OPSM. The job was a really exciting project for me to be a part of because it picked two small towns- Busselton, Western Australia and Napier, New Zealand- and found people of all ages and walks of life who use and need their product, eye glasses. Saatchi & Saatchi scoured through Australian and New Zealand census data to determine a town in each country that encompassed the broad range of types of jobs, incomes, ethnicities etc. that represent each country. We met with bushfire fighters, a horse whisperer, a bagpipe marching band, a master jeweller and a beekeeper just to name a few. I was really excited by the notion of shooting my favorite subject in advertising work: real people with real stories. These are just a few of the shots from Busselton, Western Australia. I'll post images from the New Zealand campaign which was shot in Napier, New Zealand in the near future.

OPSM Busselton Horse Whisperer Joe Wigdahl

OPSM Busselton Water Reserve Joe Wigdahl

OPSM Busselton Catalog Portraits Joe Wigdahl

OPSM Busselton morning landscape Joe Wigdahl

Like most of the large productions I've been working on lately, I was shooting alongside a TVC production that was filming spots for TV and the web, while I was shooting images for the new catalog, website and everything print- in-store, billboards etc. We shot every day for 10-14 hours a day for 2 weeks and I ended up shooting portraits of over 100 people and a lot of landscapes along the way. Most days I would shoot alongside the TVC crew, grabbing shots when I could and stepping in when the TVC guys were done or had a few minutes to hand the subject and location over to me. In each city I had a day to shoot 25 portraits a day which broke down to a new location, set up and portrait every 20 minutes or so for 9 hours. An exhausting but exhilarating exercise as the opportunity to meet new people with great stories just kept coming. At one point I ended up getting pretty emotional at a small town bag piper rehearsal after feeling so lucky that these people would allow us to come in and be a part of their private experience, something I would have never been able to know about or be a part of if I was on my own traveling through this small town.

At the end of the 2 week assignment I'd shot portraits of more than 100 people, was tired, sore and really missed home but damn, I enjoyed that job. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

CD: Matt Gilmour Sr AD: Nils Eberhardt Sr Copywriter: Veronica Copestake The TVC/Motion campaign was produced by Tobias Webster at EXIT Films and directed by Stephen Carroll.

Joe Wigdahl 17/4/13 Joe Wigdahl 17/4/13

Aussie Bodies: Keep Going

A few months ago I was asked to shoot stills alongside a TVC production for Aussie Bodies. I shot portraits of several famous Aussie athletes and an everyday yoga mom in action for the Australian protein and supplements brand Aussie Bodies for use in print and online. Each story was a pretty inspiring one: Sally Fitzgibbons is a world champion professional surfer and started winning titles when she was 14 after just a few years of surfing. Kelly Cartwright lost her leg to cancer when she was 15 and has since climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and won gold and silver medals at the 2012 London Paralympics. Lewis Jetta was part of the Sydney Swan's 2012 AFL Premiership title known for several of his last-second game saving goals. Marcus Bottay is a Guinness Book of World Records holder for the rope climb and is sort of the king of those guys who work out in the fitness yard on Bondi Beach. He's also a big believer in freeing people from gym and healthclub memberships and teaching them that opportunities to get fit, be healthy and have fun are everywhere. It was one of those jobs where I felt lucky to get to meet a bunch of pretty inspiring people.

Sally Fitzgibbons for Aussie Bodies

Marcus Bottay for Aussie Bodies

Lewis Jetta for Aussie Bodies

Kelly Cartwright for Aussie Bodies

Joe Wigdahl 26/3/13 Joe Wigdahl 26/3/13

Subaru Forester 2013- Norway

A few months after shooting the first leg of the 2013 Subaru Forester's trip around the world, AOI Pro contacted me and asked if I'd like to go to Norway to shoot the next leg. I jumped at the chance- I've always wanted to go to Norway and after I moved to Australia I considered the chances of ever going to be close to nil. Even though there would only be 4-5 hours of daylight a day, -20C most days and it would be something like 28-35 hours of travel each way depending on flight times and delays and it would be right before Christmas, I had to go.

2013 Subaru Forester Norway by Joe Wigdahl

A break in the clouds, Norway.

Buried road markers

A long road through the mountains

Frozen lake at dusk.

2013 Subaru Forester Norway by Joe Wigdahl

The crew lost in the fog.

The “Blue Hour”

Aside from my clients who were from Japan, the entire crew and production were Norwegian and I had the good fortune to meet and shoot alongside a motion crew headed by Norwegian D.P.

Jo Eken Torp

. Shooting in the -20°C temp didn't really bother me as I had lived in Chicago for 10 years and had done shoots in colder temperatures than that. The Norwegians had a lovely habit of standing around and eating waffles and cheese toasties and drinking endless cups of filtered coffee on our downtime and that kept us cozy enough. I was more worried about the fact that we were shooting in Norway the week before winter solstice and daylight would be short and it would mean that not a minute of shoot time could be wasted. Most of the time the motion crew had the car so I had to get whatever I could get without bugging them which meant using long lenses and hiding in the woods while cameras were rolling. When I did have the car to myself I would usually get about 10-15 minutes to get as many of my hero shots as I could before they took the car away from me. To make things more challenging, I completely lost my voice for 5 days of the shoot. I would have to whisper hoarsely to my assistant and then he would have to frantically yell something in Norwegian or English to get things to happen while we still had the car for a few precious minutes. Several times we were ready to start shooting when a cloud or some fog would pass by and everything would get totally lost in white. Nothing had edges or shadows and there was no sense of depth whatsoever. It was like being in an infinite outdoor cyclorama and shooting would become useless. Suddenly a cloud might lift and we'd shoot furiously for 5-10 minutes before it was gone again. On the last day of shooting we had an incredible sunny day and got the chance to see the "blue hour" in which the landscape gets a stunning steely-cyan/blue hue just after the sun sets.

My dad's side of the family is Norwegian- that's where the name Wigdahl comes from. We grew up with lots of relatives in the "Yassir, you betcha, I'll bring some casserole to the pot luck!" Scandinavian diaspora of Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota. During the holidays at the Wigdahl's we ate mashed potatoes and meatballs, pickled herring and lefse covered in butter and sugar. My grandparents had little troll figurines around the house and my family drank coffee from the time we woke up to just before bed. We were told that Uff da! was basically the Norwegian all-purpose curse but my Norwegian friends from Norway told me that it's basically equivalent to shouting "Jeepers!" or "Gosh darnit!" But growing up in New Jersey and being of Norwegian descent meant that we didn't really know anybody else who was Norwegian so we took our grandparent's word (and maybe Garrison Keilor's) for what being Norwegian meant.

Aside from the curiosity of knowing where one's ancestors comes from, I think my brother and I were always sort of plagued by the question of "How much of this is my fault and how much is it genetics?" hahaha. Scandinavian music that makes it abroad seems to be either insanely heavy death metal or club music. Scandinavian films tend to favor the silent, expressionless, melancholic hero bathed in dusky blue light. The dusky blue light was true but everyone I met in Norway was really lovely and chipper and constantly offering me a cup of coffee. My assistant did point out that the snowsuit I was wearing while in Norway was the kind of snowsuit that homeless people wear- so that might be a reason why everyone was so keen to offer me coffee and a waffle but I was stricken by generally how friendly the Norwegians were and how perfect their English was and it made traveling a breeze. I kept thinking what a shame it was that I couldn't spend some serious time in Norway to meet more people and to see how this incredible landscape could transform from white to green.

Joe Wigdahl 28/2/13 Joe Wigdahl 28/2/13

Subaru 2013 Forester- Australia

In September I was asked by the Japanese advertising agencies Hakuhodo and Aoi Pro to take part in a year-long project shooting the new Subaru Forester as it began a drive around the world through some its toughest terrain. I shot stills alongside a motion/TVC production headed by the Australian cinematographer Daniel Ardilley with the Australian production handled by Dynamite Productions. I felt pretty lucky to be involved in this production as I knew I was going to be going to parts of Australia that I probably would never get the chance to go see otherwise and I'd be able to go up in a helicopter to get some great views of the incredible Aussie outback landscape. We first shot in a rather desolate spot outside of Broken Hill, where all the old Mad Max films were shot. While we were shooting we had to endure temperatures of 38°C and higher and the only things that seemed to occupy this blazing landscape aside from the occasional dry shrub were flies. Lots and lots of flies. It was my first time out in the real desert of the outback and I wasn't prepared for how that fine red dust gets into everything, so I spent most of my downtime when I wasn't shooting cleaning my camera and lenses. On our shoot in the Flinders Ranges we were climbing hills in 4x4s so steep that we ran the risk of flipping backwards. I still remember our location scout telling us before we had to drive up the longest, steepest hill of the track to get to one of our locations, "You have to commit to it and go forward and not stop. If you hesitate or stop, you will roll backwards and probably die. You'll also probably kill whoever is behind you." Nice. I don't tell my wife about those parts of the job.

Still, I had a blast shooting alongside a fantastic crew and production team and I enjoyed working with my clients so much that it inspired me to start learning Japanese. They were happy enough with my work on the Australian production that they brought me out to Norway in December to shoot another leg of the Forester's journey around the world. (I'll post images from that in a week or two.)

Subaru Forester, Australia, photography by Joe Wigdahl Photography

Subaru Forester, Australia, photography by Joe Wigdahl Photography

Joe Wigdahl 15/2/13 Joe Wigdahl 15/2/13

Nikon D5200 "I Am Imagination"

Back in August I worked with the German advertising agency Jung von Matt ( JVM) on the "I Am Imagination" campaign for the new Nikon D5200. It was also one of the several jobs I've done this year alongside a TVC/motion production where I was the still shooter. I had the pleasure to work alongside Danish director Henrik Henson who shot the motion spot for this campaign.

Nikon D5200 “I Am Imagination” Photography by Joe Wigdahl

Nikon D5200 “I Am Imagination” Photography by Joe Wigdahl, Advertising Agency Jung von Matt

Joe Wigdahl 24/4/12 Joe Wigdahl 24/4/12

Mazda BT-50 Shoot: Zoom Zoom Magazine

Last month I was asked by the UK's Redwood Media Group to shoot a story featuring Mazda's new BT-50 model for its award-winning online presence, Zoom Zoom Magazine. They wanted to tell a story about a day in the life of a BT-50 owner with a natural, reportage feel- showcasing its versatility by following the owner through rough terrain, a surf trip, a trip to the zoo "glamping" (glamorous camping) with his nieces and capped with a night out on the town.We had a looonngggg shot list for the 2 day shoot and I was working alongside Jefferson Grainger, from Corporate Video Australia, who was shooting the motion segment of the piece for the web. Working alongside a motion crew on the same production can be pretty challenging for a still shooter because it can significantly cut into the time there is to shoot- especially if the motion crew is shooting sound or if they don't want to give time to the still shooter (which happens a lot). Thankfully that wasn't the case in this shoot as Jefferson and I both realized that we were going to have to really work together to make sure that each of us got what we needed and it was actually a lot of fun bouncing ideas off one another as to how to get as many good shots as we could in the time that we had. The client was really happy with the results and I just finished shooting a second feature in Sydney for Zoom Zoom Magazine last week. I've included the tears and just a few of the images from the shoot here.