White Arrows
A new five-piece from Los Angeles with a debut single called Get Gone and no visual identity yet. White Arrows needed pictures that could carry press kits, socials, and artwork all at once. We took them into the Malibu hills and waited for the light.
Before the light
01 / The setupWe arrived early and golden hour made us wait. The dead time became the shoot. Exploring the hillside, testing compositions, letting five people who had just become a band settle into being photographed together.
Mickey Church, Andrew Naeve, John Paul Caballero, Steven Vernet, Henry Schiff. No rigid poses. The strongest frames came from the unguarded minutes between takes.
The Pacific
The hills gave texture and the ocean gave an infinite horizon. Psychedelic pop wants both: something grounded to stand on and something endless behind it.
Film workflow
02 / The processingEvery frame went through a film-emulation pass: warm tones, slightly saturated skies, a nostalgic cast that matched the analog influences in the songs. What audiences saw and what they heard had to agree.
The set had to work at every scale, from a phone screen to a press page to album artwork. Intimate group frames for the small sizes, landscape integration for the big ones.
Five friends finding their footing on a hillside.
Contact sheet
03 / Selects- Five
- Members
- Get Gone
- Debut single
- Coachella
- Within two years
- 2011
- Year
Credits
04 / Colophon- Artist
- White Arrows
- Members
- Mickey Church, Andrew Naeve, John Paul Caballero, Steven Vernet, Henry Schiff
- Location
- Malibu Hills, California
- Application
- Promotional photography, press materials
- Processing
- Film-emulation workflow
- Photography
- Matthew Wardenaar
- Year
- 2011