Strange Staging

Apparently people who build and own massive skyscrapers still have to get tenants. Obviously, they’re not looking to rent a two bedroom to Bob and Nancy, they’re looking to rent several floors to Google, or Amazon, or I guess to Bob and Nancy if they can make rent. Which I’d imagine is a lot.

In order to make these giant, vacuous, unfinished open floors seem appealing, building owners call companies like ASH-NYC to come and stage the space like any piece of real estate. I didn’t know this, and the result is surreal.

Picture an elaborate living room, board room, office space or break room and then mentally knock out the walls and zoom out quite a bit so that these little setups are surrounded by nothing but empty space. This is what a recent shoot with the aforementioned ASH-NYC entailed. The trick for me was to make the spaces seem encapsulated and grounded, and not floating in the void that they actually were. It was a challenge, and quite a bit of fun.