Our Fall 2022 campaign shoot takes place in the foothills of Southern California, where there is still a bit of wild left. We found ourselves in what felt like an artists’ retreat complete with massive Yurt, outdoor shower, an old tour bus and miscellaneous chill zones dedicated to relaxing and checking out the incredible views. The property sat up about 1000 feet from the valley floor where you could see birds riding the rising heat thermals, which felt like watching kites at the beach.

 It’s here where we first met Jorge, the spirited owner of the property who was wearing overalls, a boonie hat and boots. Jorge bought the property during the pandemic and turned it into a commune style “off the grid”, get-a-away for people to come and enjoy nature and create memories.

Our first shot of the day started in the Yurt using the curved ribbed ceiling as our visual point of reference. I actually had never been inside a Yurt before. It has such a nice vibe inside and honestly just feels like a big kids’ version of a fort.

 The talent of the day - A.K.A the models, included Banks Journal super veteran and MVP Nevin Pontius, as well as newcomer especial, Torrey Dudley. Both models brought their A game throughout the day and what I find most interesting are the small conversations running between the shots. Nevin’s love of motorcycles / anything with an engine is always a huge theme for him. We had never shot Torrey before so the conversation was slow at first and then opened up as the day progressed. We got to learn more about his last few years and how he has come back to professional modeling after being on a small hiatus.

The over all main theme for the Fall 22 Collection plays into the Japanese roots of Wabi Sabi - which can be generally described as finding beauty in the imperfect. We wanted our shoot to represent this feeling by showing the products in an outdoor space to create this type of tension and to make the viewer have to choose on what to focus on first, the background or the foreground. Another way we played with tension was in styling. Classically inspired and a heavy nod to military, both in color and in design, paired with the bright patchwork Hawaiiana print gives us that same dichotomy.

My favorite location on the shoot was the Eucalyptus garden. Not only was the smell overwhelmingly fresh but it gave off this unique non traditional winter feel due to the cool colors found in the plants. This hero shot was styled with my favorite piece in the collection - the Georgia Jacket - which features that classic liner with an Onion quilt pattern and a fully removable Sherpa collar. The Military Olive color jacket paired with cool Agave tones found on the Eucalyptus perfectly complimented each other and cap ended the photoshoot for us. 

We ended the evening by having our gracious host Jorge, or I should really say Chef Jorge killed it with some incredible mouth watering tacos! Thank you Jorge!

Lastly, I want to say thank you to the full Banks Journal crew that was there to help support and make the machine move. Our incredible Photo team Zak Bush and Adrian Alston. The models Nevin Pontius and Torrey Dudley. And a special thanks to Adam Loder for capturing all that Super 8 film.

 See you guys on the next one!

- Words by Jacob McCabe

*Our Fall 2022 collection will be available in store and online September, 8th.