I know, I know… when you are on holiday you are not supposed to work. But some projects just fall straight into your lap, and are too fun to pass up! In this case I got to do Factory photography when Sophie wanted to visit an olive oil mill. We were staying in the lovely old city of Baeza (Andalucia, Spain). The eastern side of Andalucia is one long stretch of olive tree groves, as far as the eye can see!OOur hope was to visit a really old olive oil mill, but all the guided tours were full. We finally found one — but, said Sophie, ‘I’m afraid this one is kind of modern’. As it turned out, that wasn’t a problem at all!
Just to clarify: I do a lot of factory photography as part of my regular work. So you would think I would not be so excited about doing it on holiday too… But read on, and you’ll understand why!
See my page ‘fabrieks en productiefotografie’ for more examples of this type of photography.
Understanding the landscape
As a photographer you always want to understand the landscape of where you are. The western side of Andalucia (towards Sevilla) consists of endless wheat fields. Quite beautiful in their own right, even in 40 degree (Celsius) weather. But then you get to the eastern side of Andalucia, and the landscape changes significantly. Of course you have the Sierras, a beautiful and surprisingly high mountain range. And all along the edges of the Sierra’s are endless landscapes of olive tree groves. We stayed in Baeza, which is in the province of Jaen. Just in that province there are 71 million olive trees!
factory photography of an innovative olive mill
The olive mill we visited, AOVEland, turned out to be very innovative olive oil mill. Here cutting edge technology, lovely design, and honoring the olive tree and the age old tradition of miling, go hand in hand. As it happened we were the only visitors and so we got a private tour — which was awesome. You will understand: as an industrial photographer I could not leave my camera in the bag!
I loved everything about this plant. The hospitality was great; the vision was exciting; the place was clean; the art work was fantastic. I am sure a traditional olive mill would have been interesting also, but for this industrial photographer it was a lot of fun to be able to do some cool unexpected factory photography in such a forward looking place. Take a look, for instance, at the gold-plated experience centre, with all the huge (fully functional) oil drums inside!
The irony of factory photography
I am not sure I have ever photographed such a clean factory! I am often invited to do factory photography when everything is in full process. Often times things are so dusty and dirty I don’t even know where to put my hands, much less my camera.
This factory, on the other hand, was very clean. Yes, they were on summer break and doing maintenance — but I think I am going to suggest this next time I am offered to photograph a factory. I understand: you think that everything looks better when it’s busy: but often times you can’t tell in the photo whether a machine is moving or not!
Design and art
AOVEland isn’t just a factory. It’s a whole complex. The buildings have a lovely modern design (admire the 12300 year old olive tree in front of the main office); the electricity poles are fun to look at (look closely at what you see!), and the art on the walls was beautiful. See how the design reflects in the pot of the olive plant?
Where factory photography becomes product photography
The emphasis on great modern design was also very visible in the products sold in the gift shop. Sophie and I did the olive oil tasting test (Sophie did far better than me!), and we bought some lovely bottles. This week I took one of them to the studio and photographed it. Photographing a white product on a white background is complex: often times the background is kept to grey, or the product becomes either to dark, or too light. If it becomes to light ypu can’t see it anymore. So in this picture the background is pure white, while the product retains its light color and shape, without becoming grey.
See more product photography here.
Rogier is an industrial photographer living in the netherlands, but serving clients worldwide. His images are used in advertising, reporting, employer branding and strategic planning.