This was my first internationally successful advertising campaign. There were four ads … for discerning cognac, whisky, vodka and champagne drinkers. They'd all once in a while crave a beer and - naturally - would then choose the best beer in the world: Tuborg. The campaign won many accolades. (Agency: Young & Rubicam Copenhagen, art director: Klaus Bromberg)
The 'cognac drinker's beer' shot took me a week to do. It is lit entirely by daylight - but I had that sunlight only for an hour at midday. So I cooled down a couple of dozen beers, shot about six or eight 5x7” plates, had them processed and came back to the shot the next day - until I got that very light. The shot is not retouched; bottle and glass are naturally frosted; there are no 'special effects'.
The picture has an aftermath: One month after I took that shot I was travelling on Bali and I climbed a mountain, an active volcano. It was stiflingly hot an humid ... the ground I was walking on was hot. I didn’t bring enough water and I was thirsty. And all I could think about was the dozens of bottles of ice-cold Tuborg beer I had emptied down the drain four weeks earlier!