ALFRED DUNHILL CENTENARY COLLECTION

A special look back on these wonderful images on the 125th year anniversary of the company. 

We have always been fascinated by the alternative printing processes. The desire to push the boundaries of creative techniques to inspire has always been present in our fine art work and when possible we’ve also aspired to combining these techniques into our commercial work. On several occasions, specialist commissions afforded us the opportunity to do this, the most notable of these was the body of work we were commissioned to produce for the Alfred Dunhill Centenary.

We were approached by Alfred Dunhill to photograph and create a  special collection of work for their Centenary. This was to feature many of the most important iconic pieces from the Alfred Dunhill archives. It was a truly outstanding commission and we were very honoured to have been approached to be part of it. They wanted the photography to reflect the age and vintage qualities of each piece, therefore it was decided that we would shot the images as  10 x 8 inch Polaroid Transfers. 

It proved to be a splendid choice of technique and we produced one of the most important photographic collections of work of our careers. These images then went on to win multiple awards around the world.

THE POLAROID TRANSFER TECHNIQUE

This is a technique were the process of producing a Polaroid is interrupted early and the backing sheet is removed before the inks can transfer onto the Polaroid film sheet. The backing containing the inks that produce the image is then pressed onto watercolour paper and the image is transferred onto the paper. The technique requires skill and patience, particularly when dealing with images of this size. The effect is very beautiful, the images resemble watercolour paintings and each one is unique.