Assignment for Schweizer Familie of Dr. Bruno Kaufmann who has approximately 40’000 human skulls warehoused in banana boxes. The skulls come from the Battle of Dornach in 1499, not far from Basel.
Backstory: My briefing was to somehow incorporate the banana boxes in the portrait. OK, can do. Seeing the poorly lit warehouse and towering stacks of boxes several meters high, I thought, what the hell?
So I enquired whether he had any problems if I stuck him in the box? Morally, ethically and personally – he didn’t see a problem. Made the shots, including safe versions to satisfy any doubts and sent them off to the photo editor.
Eventually, I heard back that the images ignited a big heated discussion in the editorial meeting about the choice of image(head in the box) but the decision was to run it. and so it was..