Social Change: Impact

Photographers from DigiToast Productions Turn The Ice Bucket Challenge on it’s Head

As far as social media crazes go, the Ice Bucket Challenge was one that really split the nation; with some people believing that it was a beautiful way to raise awareness for the sufferers of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, whilst others believed it was no more than frivolous nonsense.

Photographers Tomas Januska and Edvardas Poska of DigiToast Productions gave the phenomena a closer look, with their recent series, Impact. The project involved pouring milk onto people during the photo shoot, capturing their reactions at the exact moment of impact.

‘A bunch of emotions can be identified– from surprise and astonishment to light apathy and discomfort. It can be compared to a reaction when people are being told a diagnosis.’

The images call to question motivations behind the popularity of the ice bucket videos: Was it compassion? Sensitivity? Attention? Sympathy? It also makes us wonder if striving for celebrity within our friendship groups can be compatible with our desire to help others. We asked Tomas more about the project:

The Plus: How many times did you have to take each shot?
Tomas Januska: We managed to shoot a series of shoots with each person. Around, maybe, 70-100 frames with everyone. We did everything in one go, in around 4-5 hours.

TP: Did the models complain about getting milk splashed on them?
TJ: No the models didn’t complain, but were excited and curious about our cause, and why we were doing this.

TP: How did you capture the exact moment that the milk impacted the models?
TJ: We used Profoto B1 heads with Freezing settings, on low power, so it helps to catch the right moment.

TP: Was there anything difficult to achieve?
TJ: The difficulty was to not get wet and splashed with milk. And milk stinks a few days after the shoot…