Apple packaging like you’ve never seen it before
Photographer Johann Clausen sheds rare light on Apple’s product packaging in a captivating new series
Clean lines, whiter-than-white elegance and direct, no-fuss ultra-minimalism. These are the qualities that give Apple its unmistakable Apple-ness.
But Apple’s product packaging, though the source of less limelight, seems to involve almost as much artistic consideration as the device it shrouds. Every inch is considered: superfluity is a sin, and simplicity provides ecstasy in a messy world.
In photographer Johann Clausen’s new personal project, it’s Apple’s packaging, not its products, that have been given the floor. The series came about, as many interesting things do, by accident. ‘The inner part of the packaging of my AirPods was flying around the studio and looked kind of interesting. So I held it in front of the camera and started playing around with it,’ he says.
Liberated from their function to conceal, protect and generate anticipation, the packaging becomes sculptural, exaggerated and abstracted, taking on a life of its own. ‘You don’t usually pay attention to the packaging: it’s hardly noticeable when you’re excited about your new product’, explains Clausen, who has brought his delicate and daring approach to collaborations with the likes of BMW, Cartier, Hermès and Wallpaper*. ‘They are well-engineered and well-designed white cardboard objects which are negative shapes of the objects they contain. These supposedly unimportant objects convey the “spirit” of the Apple products that have taken so much importance in many of our lives. They speak the same visual language and give off a familiar, comforting aura.’
Here, Apple’s product packaging is far more than the sum of its rapidly-discarded parts. It’s as much about what’s absent as what’s present. Clausen’s series leaves much to the imagination: the AirPods casing is straightforward to spot, the rest is an intriguing game of deduction – familiar shapes become abstracted, sensual and glowing in an aura that leaves us wondering just how familiar we are with the objects so ubiquitous in everyday life.
Collaborating with art director Martin Golombek, Clausen worked with a view camera and digital sensor for the series. ‘The set-up is designed to bring out details of textures while creating distortion-free reproductions of the objects. A soft studio light was used to sublimate the relief and emphasise the greyscale,’ he says. Here, negative forms are given life; positive forms are merely suggested. ‘I also backlit the packaging to heighten the objects’ sacred symbolism, making it almost see-through like ancient alabaster statues or pots.’
For Clausen, creating the series became almost meditative. ‘We were surrounded by all the different white objects resembling each other,’ he says. ‘After a while, we started to forget the scale of the objects and the small packages suddenly became spacious and imposing. At this point, it felt like photographing utopian architectural models rather than just packaging.’
INFORMATION
johannclausen.com
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Harriet Lloyd-Smith was the Arts Editor of Wallpaper*, responsible for the art pages across digital and print, including profiles, exhibition reviews, and contemporary art collaborations. She started at Wallpaper* in 2017 and has written for leading contemporary art publications, auction houses and arts charities, and lectured on review writing and art journalism. When she’s not writing about art, she’s making her own.
-
Find yourself at Six Senses Kyoto, the brand's breathtaking Japan debut
Six Senses Kyoto opens its doors boasting tranquil, luxurious interiors by Blink Design Group
By Danielle Demetriou Published
-
Shigeru Ban’s mini Paper Log House welcomed at The Glass House
'Shigeru Ban: The Paper Log House' is shown at The Glass House in New Canaan, USA as the house museum of American architect Philip Johnson plays host to the Japanese architect’s model temporary home concept
By Adrian Madlener Published
-
Artist Mickalene Thomas wrestles with notions of Black beauty, female empowerment and love
'Mickalene Thomas: All About Love’, a touring exhibition, considers Black female representation
By Hannah Silver Published
-
The cosmos meets art history in Vivian Greven’s New York exhibition
Vivian Greven’s ‘When the Sun Hits the Moon’, at Perrotin in New York City, is the artist’s first solo exhibition in the USA
By Emily McDermott Published
-
The Met’s ‘The Real Thing: Unpacking Product Photography’ dissects the avant-garde in early advertising
A new exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York explores the role of product photography and advertising in shaping the visual language of modernism
By Zoe Whitfield Published
-
Detroit Institute of Arts celebrates Black cinema
‘Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971’ at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) brings lost or forgotten films, filmmakers and performers to a contemporary audience
By Anne Soward Published
-
BLUM marks 30 years of Japanese contemporary art in America
BLUM will take ‘Thirty Years: Written with a Splash of Blood’ to its New York space in September 2024, continuing its celebration of Japanese contemporary art in America
By Timothy Anscombe-Bell Published
-
Todd Gray’s sculptural photography collages defy dimension, linearity and narrative
In Todd Gray’s New York exhibition, he revisits his 40-year archive, fragmented into elaborated frames that open doors for new readings
By Osman Can Yerebakan Published
-
Frieze LA 2024 guide: the art, gossip and buzz
Our Frieze LA 2024 guide includes everything you need to know and see in and around the fair
By Renée Reizman Published
-
New York artist Christopher Astley showcases an alternative natural world
At Martos Gallery in New York, Christopher Astley’s paintings evoke an alternative natural world and the chaos of warfare (until 16 March 2024)
By Tianna Williams Published
-
The Whitney plots Harold Cohen’s artistic AI adventures
‘Harold Cohen: AARON’, at the Whitney Museum of American Art celebrates the artist’s software – the earliest AI program for artmaking – as an artwork in its own right
By Hannah Silver Published