Joachim Ladefoged photographs international soccer star Lionel Messi for the cover of this week’s Time Magazine. The Argentine-born Messi plays for FC Barcelona and was recently awarded FIFA’s Ballon d’Or. Notoriously shy and guarded, Messi sat down with the magazine to discuss his shining career, his rivalry with Cristiano Ronaldo, and his relationship with his home country.

Ladefoged had a mere eight minutes to shoot Messi on set. Despite the time limit, Ladefoged found Messi very patient and easy to work with. The photographer is also a longtime fan of the soccer player. He admits, “For the first time in my 20-year career as a photographer, I asked for an autograph.”

Time Magazine’s latest issue with Lionel Messi on the cover is on newsstands now.

See more of Joachim Ladefoged’s photography here.

A&E brings to life the haunting world of Stephen King in an adaptation of the bestselling author’s Bag of Bones. The novel tells the story of a writer struggling with the death of his wife and the supernatural happenings in his hometown of Dark Score, Maine. To promote the two-night movie, A&E launched DarkScoreStories.com, an interactive website that features a photo-driven narrative of the troubled town. Joachim Ladefoged captured the images that tell the story of the town.

Ladefoged’s moody black and white photographs represent the work of a photojournalist who visits the town a year before the events of the movie. The website features photo essays on seven prominent residents with captions written in the voice of the photojournalist. Each essay contains just one image that has been given a subtle GIF treatment. The GIFs create an unsettling effect and add haunting clues to the subtext of the scene. In addition to the site, A&E bound Ladefoged’s photographs into a coffee table book and sent it out for promotion.

Ladefoged’s photographs are on DarkScoreStories.com now.

See more of Joachim Ladefoged’s photography here.

Joachim Ladefoged’s photograph of Joe Pytka appears in the latest issue of AdWeek. Pytka spoke to the magazine about his prolific career as a commercial director and his 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Clio Awards last month.

Ladefoged originally captured Pytka in 2010 when the two were collaborating on Gatorade’s “G Series” campaign featuring athletes at the top of their game. While Pytka filmed the commercial, Ladefoged sometimes worked beside him, taking action shots that would appear in the print campaign.

See more of Joachim Ladefoged’s photography here.

Poor vision continues to plague undeveloped areas of the world where finding an optician is costly and time-consuming. Danish optometry chain Nyt Syn, or “New Vision,” strives to make a difference with their “Glasses for Africa” program. Nyt Syn collected eyeglasses from more than 70,000 people in Denmark. Six opticians and a nurse then traveled to low-income areas of Gambia and Senegal to administer eye exams and fit them with the collected glasses. Joachim Ladefoged accompanied them on their journey to villages around Africa, shooting video and reportage-style images to document the trip.

As people finished their exam and were given a pair of donated glasses, Ladefoged was there to take each person’s picture. The portraits are featured on Nyt Syn’s website, in store displays, and the corporate magazine. The print campaign has been shortlisted for a Creative Circle Award. While the portraits show people sitting still and refined, their visible reactions of the joy and awe of being able to see clearly are captured in Ladefoged’s video footage.

Recalls Ladefoged, “The trip was nothing like any other corporate/commercial shoot I have ever done, just to go to the areas where they would set up the eye exams was an 8 hour car ride in to the bush on a bumpy dirt road. Then when we arrived at midnight all of a sudden out of the dark a man dressed in green leaves and a painted face holding a machete jumps up in the front of the car, scaring us like crazy. Then music and singing started and the whole village was waiting up for the group to welcome us.”

The rest of the night was spent celebrating the arrival of the group. They were welcomed with food made over an open fire. Says Ladefoged, “People were so happy to be able to get a pair of glasses, and happy to have their portrait taken.”

Links:
Glasses for Africa
Nyt Syn
Joachim Ladefoged

Gatorade took a new turn in its branding strategy last year by renaming itself “G.” Its latest offering is a line of performance drinks called “The G Series.” A set of 3 drinks aims to help athletes perform their best – 01 Prime is meant provides a boost of energy before activity, 02 Perform is the Gatorade Thirst Quencher taken during movement, and 03 Recover helps athletes rehydrate and aids muscle recovery after exercise.

Joachim Ladefoged worked with TBWA\Chiat\Day to photograph the print campaign. The first round of advertisements released include three-time Olympic gold medalist and record-setting sprinter Usain Bolt, NBA all-star player Dwight Howard, and NFL quarterback and 4-time MVP Peyton Manning. The black and white images of the elite athletes shows them imbibing the performance drink while training and competing.

Says Art Producer Debra Rosen, “Working with Joachim was an unbelievable experience. We had very little time with the athletes and Joachim still managed to capture beautiful, poignant imagery in every single shot. His positive attitude makes him a joy to work with and his incredible talent makes for flawless artwork.”

Ladefoged shot a variety of images, including product shots, motion stills, and portraits of the athletes in action and sitting one-on-one. While famed television commercial director Joe Pytka filmed the commercial, Ladefoged sometimes worked beside him to get action shots. Ladefoged even makes a cameo as a press photographer in the commercial with Peyton Manning. Actors posed as photographers while Ladefoged in his “acting” role was actually photographing Manning as Pytka’s camera rolled. The shoots took place in Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, and Usain Bolt’s native Jamaica.

Having photographed tennis players at the French Open, Joachim is no stranger to working with athletes. Ladefoged says of the hand-picked G Series athletes, “The Gatorade athletes are all nice, professional people that are easy to work with. But as in any shoot nowadays, you have to work super fast when the star is in front of you, so we did.” For example, “In the locker room shot of Usain Bolt, we only had him for 10 minutes – so clearly you do not have the time to talk about his latest training times.”

View videos of the athletes and more at the Gatorade G Series website.

G SERIES:
Art Producer: Debra Rosen
Group Creative Director: Jimmy Smith
Creative Director: Jayanta Jenkins
Creative Director: Donna LaMar
Senior Art Director: Brent Anderson
Senior Copywriter: Steve Howard

G SERIES PRO:
Art Producer: Debra Rosen
Group Creative Director: Jimmy Smith
Creative Director: Jayanta Jenkins
Creative Director: Donna LaMar
Associate Creative Director: Javier Castillo
Copywriter: Eric Arnold

Representatives from the 192 countries that make up the United Nations are currently gathered in Copenhagen for the Climate Change Conference, also known as COP 15. Ten days of talks are scheduled until December 18th, aiming to establish official guidelines for reducing emissions from greenhouse gases.

Last September, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon reached out to global advertising agencies for support. After three rounds of intense reviews by the International Advertising Association and the United Nations headquarters in New York, OgilvyEarth’s compelling “Hopenhagen” campaign was chosen as the voice of the conference.

Ogilvy invited several photographers to participate in the project, but there is one in particular that is catching the eye of people around the world. Joachim Ladefoged’s photograph of two boys flexing their arms as Earth’s bodyguards is displayed prominently on a billboard in the center of Copenhagen Square.

Seen already in several news outlets such as BBC News, the image is being picked up by the media and distributed around the world. Ogilvy Creative Director Michael Paterson says, “We think it will become one of the iconic images of the conference.”

Why did you feel Joachim Ladefoged was right for this project?
Ogilvy: Joachim is an amazing photojournalist; and the fact that he’s Danish and the UN Climate change conference is taking place now in Copenhagen made him the perfect choice. He very kindly donated his time and energy to our Hopenhagen project. He became a true citizen of Hopenhagen and an enthusiastic partner for us at Ogilvy. Not only did Joachim shoot some great pictures for us, he even used his kids as models, and that great image of his 2 boys flexing their muscles as earth’s bodyguard is dominating Copenhagen Square right now.

Joachim, how do your kids feel about being models in the campaign?
Joachim Ladefoged: They think it’s pretty cool; they saw them selves on national TV today. There was a big opening concert with one of their favorite bands and half of the time their big billboard in Copenhagen Square was in the picture, for them that was exciting.

What were you trying to convey with the campaign?
O: Most climate change campaigns to date have focused on the negative. We wanted to do the opposite and focus on the positive. The aim was to make something populist, democratic and super simple that everybody can relate to. Hopenhagen is such a simple idea, and now that the conference is in full swing it makes total sense. Our intention all along was to make this the people’s campaign. We have done a huge amount using video and social media, as well as engaging a series of great photographers like Joachim along the way.

JL: The direction was to shoot very loose and guerilla style, nothing too pretty. More like a documentary or a journalistic approach – we wanted to capture what was real and in the moment.

Where is the campaign being shown and what has been the reaction?
O: The campaign is being shown worldwide including places like US, China, India and Brazil, which are high on the United Nations priority list. Of course it’s huge in Copenhagen itself, where there is almost blanket coverage of the city with posters, video installations and events. The city of Copenhagen has enthusiastically embraced the campaign; they renamed the main city square “Hopenhagen Square.” We really think people are ready for a positive message of hope about climate change. It’s about people making a difference, and we think that resonates.

Certainly. I hope people will feel empowered to make positive decisions for the present and future of the planet.

JL: Let us seal the deal now, in my opinion we can not act fast enough.

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Thank you to Greg Gerstner, Tom Godici, and Michael Paterson at Ogilvy NY.

More of Joachim Ladefoged’s work is available for view here.
Post your message of hope at www.hopenhagen.org.

-Helen Shih