In 2004 I was in the Canary Islands in Anfi del Mar for a commercial assignment for Boots, the British beauty retailer and pharmacy chain.
Back then I still had my second model of scaffolding, different from the one we use now. We set it on the beach where we had a big set of people working for us, with lots of props.
At the end of the day I moved a group of extras and inflatables to a spot that I really liked to take my own picture. So, Animaletti is a rare case of staged photography, in fact I usually don’t direct people as I am interested in observing what they do and feel. The girls and children in front are fake beachgoers that were part of my set. While the real ones, which are far more interesting, are scattered in the background. (View Animaletti on the Archive).
Here is a short behind-the-scenes video of the shooting, edited starting from some vintage footage filmed by my assistant Giovanni with his Sony miniDV.