“You Have to Have an Idea” Is a Mantra Les Garçons Live By
David Rollins and Rob Lee first met at an advertising agency where they were brought together as the classic art director and copywriter duo. Their agency background, which both credit with teaching them the ‘creative process’, means that they know what challenges face each person in the room when something is getting made. Interestingly, this has resulted in two connected guiding principles. The first is “you have to have an idea,” meaning the directors need to bring their own point of view to any shoot. The second is not believing that they need to protect “their” idea, instead choosing to see themselves as an extension of the client team and finding ways to cohesively collaborate throughout any project.
Les Garçons’ shared passion for food exists on and off-screen. The duo has been known to “throw crazy oyster parties, and make molecular cocktails, and build Champagne towers.” On screen, this passion is palpable in the stylised and meticulous way they approach anything involving food, elevating the now common-seeming task of food photography back to its high-art roots. In ‘Power Games’, a personal project by Les Garçons, sumptuous mid-century interiors are brought to life in a games-and-cocktails evening. ‘Time to Cheer’ for Amazon explores the festive period with bold use of colour and impeccable staging. Most recently Les Garçons finished a “visual love poem to the idea of Italy” for President’s Choice pizza where they used set design and lighting to create “perfect harmony.”
Today, LBB spoke to Les Garçons about the lessons they learnt during their time at an advertising agency, how they’re evolving what food photography can be, and why new technology is going to help them expand on their artistic practice.
'Time to Cheer' for Amazon
LBB> LBB would love to know a little bit about you before you became ‘Les Garçons’. David - when did you realise you had a creative side? Rob, how about yourself?
Les Garçons> Rob has a very hands-on approach to creativity that he learned while making things with his dad when he was a kid. Our process is very playful, and a lot of that comes from this collaborative “let’s figure it out” mindset. David’s parents surrounded their seven children with music, books, and art, and he started playing the piano at age five. We’ve both been creatively engaged in many different ways throughout our lives. We came to directing and photography later in our lives than many people do, but when we turn around and look back on our path, it looks like a straight line.
LBB> How did you two meet and form a creative partnership? What appeals to you about working as a duo?
Les Garçons> We were assigned to each other as a copywriter/art director team at a big ad agency here in Montreal. In that kind of relationship, and in the agency environment, you learn all about the creative process, and how everyone on the team contributes to it in a different way. Rob has a designer’s visual mind, and David has a writer’s love of structure and storytelling. So, the complementarity was natural, and extremely productive. We instantly loved working together and have never stopped.
LBB> Having worked in the agency world, are there any lessons you learned from that time that you carry with you to this day?
Les Garçons> We sometimes say that we never left the world of advertising, we’re just working on the production side of it now. The agencies we work with often tell us that they feel we understand them, because we’ve walked in their shoes. We know the pressure they’re under, and have made the same mistakes that all young creatives make - scripts that are too long, or ideas that are too expensive… We remember.
The main thing we learned in advertising is that you have to have an idea. Being a director is not just about moving things around in front of a camera. And even a single still image is an opportunity to tell a story. We’re always chasing the idea, always talking about the story that’s unfolding both inside and outside the frame.
The Bay
LBB> How do you combine your film directing career with a continued dedication to photography?
Les Garçons> Anyone working as a photographer today is being asked for moving images, we have no choice but to become hybrid if we want to thrive in the current media landscape. We fully embrace this hybridity and love the distinct but related aspects of each medium. We approach our photography with a director’s mind, and we bring a photographic eye to all our directing jobs.
LBB> And how would you describe your visual style? And how has it evolved over the last 15 years?
Les Garçons> Very early in our relationship as life partners we discovered a common passion for food, and were the guys who would throw crazy oyster parties, and make molecular cocktails, and build Champagne towers… When we started taking pictures of our culinary adventures, it was straight up food porn, shot with natural light. There was always a bit of an edge to it, but it took us a while to develop real technique and find our style.
What people tell us they see in our work today is a certain intensity in the use of colour and the control of composition. It’s graphic, and when there’s motion, it’s frequently choreographed. We believe in the importance of play, and this can translate into a certain irony or slyness in our images. And always - a story.
Our early work was very much centred on food and the implied human presence that we captured on the table. A lot of our newer work expands that canvas, to include a wider framing of the story and a greater human presence, while maintaining the carefully crafted focus that people associate with Les Garçons.
BTS of the production for Skippy's spot
LBB> Food features prominently in your work and, culturally, food now occupies a much higher standing than it did even a decade ago thanks to shows like ‘Chef’s Table’. et. al. What appeals to you about working with food? How have you seen the aesthetics of food evolve?
Les Garçons> In the time that we’ve been shooting, we’ve seen food photography go from being a relatively rare specialty to something that’s become extremely banal. Everyone is a food photographer, and our screens are filled with so many perfectly beautiful images of food that they’ve become virtually meaningless. Our challenge now is to bring back a sense of originality and relevance to food images. It’s part of the reason we’re so focused on storytelling in our still imagery now - food photography has become so ubiquitous that simple food porn does not hold the same interest it used to. So while we will always love food, we have enlarged our scope to include the human presence and artful live action in the stories we like to tell.
LBB> Which of your projects are you most proud of? Why?
Les Garçons> Our favourite stills are from a project for a prominent brand of vodka that we can’t talk about, because the brand had us sign a contract asking us not to promote them. It was a big disappointment for us to produce such great work and have to keep quiet about it. But we’re proud that those images are out there, in the world and on mood boards, being their best colourful, storytelling selves.
If we had to pick one motion project, it would be the President’s Choice pizza spot we just finished. It’s a visual love poem to the idea of Italy, and there’s a perfect harmony between the set design and lighting that was something we worked very hard to achieve.
LBB> How do you strike the balance between being open/collaborative with the agency and brand client while also protecting the idea?
Les Garçons> We’ve never really bought into the idea of directors needing to be protective of “their” idea, as though there’s a necessary or built-in difference in points of view between the director and agency creatives. We haven’t encountered that. We see ourselves as an extension of the agency team, and the exploration and articulation we do together in pre-production aligns everyone around the same vision. That’s our job.
LBB> What’s your relationship with new technology and, if at all, how do you incorporate future-facing tech into your work (e.g. virtual production, interactive storytelling, AI/data-driven visuals etc)?
Les Garçons> We’re working on a personal project that’s set in an imaginary future that’s inspired by the zeitgeist of the 1970s. We used AI to generate some of the set designs, and our costume designer Jay Forest also developed some of the wardrobe with AI. The photos will integrate AI-generated images of our characters’ faces, as part of the narrative about possible futures/possible selves. It’s a very inspiring time to be an image maker. We are not at all concerned about AI taking over our industry. The invention of photography didn’t kill painting, on the contrary, it launched a whole new way of making and looking at art.
'Power Games'
LBB> Finally, how do you stay inspired?
Les Garçons> As we continually work to refine and evolve our visual style, we’re hugely inspired by the other image makers working in the same creative space. When you’re attuned to the stylistic trends in the industry, creating imagery that’s informed by the work of other artists becomes a kind of conversation. Being engaged like this is its own reward, it creates work that’s relevant and original. We also work with a team of incredibly talented and generous people, who energise us and continually challenge us to make things the best they can possibly be. I think Covid reminded us that it’s a privilege to gather in the studio and make things together, and we remind ourselves of that every day.
