top of page

Helicopters, Guns and Heatstroke - Surviving Five Days with Ken Griffiths in Rio

Louis Sartori

pirelli-tyres-ronaldo-rio-Ken-Griffiths
Pirelli Tyres: Ronaldo 1998

Moving alone across continents from Christchurch, New Zealand at the age of 23 to live in   London, Ken’s career in photography always promised adventure. He was an open-minded person who always worked with an infectious enthusiasm. His storied career is littered with clients, employers, editors, and subjects who reserve a warm smile and a funny anecdote from their moments spent with him. Creative Director Rob Porteous is no different. He recounts working with Ken in Rio De Janeiro on a now iconic Pirelli Tires campaign. Ken’s willingness to do anything for the shot and his distinctive charm made this an unforgettable assignment for all involved.

 

Rob firstly recalled his excitement at securing Ken’s involvement in the shoot, His signature was something of a coup for the agency, such was Ken’s esteem in the world of commercial photography. The pair met shortly before flying to Rio. Rob was instantly taken by Ken’s long shaggy hair, endearing Kiwi twang and skin- ‘which looked like there wasn’t a place he hadn’t been’. ‘Like Crocodile Dundee’, laughs Rob, ‘he would jump in with crocodiles [to get the shot]’.

 

The year was 1998 and Pirelli wanted to follow up their award-winning Carl Lewis campaign with a similar beat featuring a footballer. Ronaldo Nazário The world’s best player at the time was a clear candidate. He was expected to set the world alight at the World Cup in France that summer. His involvement was certainly befitting of Pirelli; a massive client and the sponsor of Ronaldo’s club football team, Inter Milan. Rob remembers being awed by the possibility of working with the Brazilian in contrast to Ken’s complete equanimity; never someone to be preoccupied with a subject’s celebrity or social standing, Ken’s sole focus on any assignment he undertook was to ‘get the shot’.

 

With the details ironed out and the brief decided, work in Rio could begin. As the famed home of Christ the Redeemer, the idea was to capture a striking image of Guanabara Bay and superimpose an image of Ronaldo onto this canvas, conjuring the essence of the statue but with Brazil’s modern-day hero in its place.

 

The first of five days in Rio was set aside for recon. Rob describes cowering with the rest of his team on a disused Sugarloaf Mountain viewing platform above favelas, whilst Ken nonchalantly took shots of the surrounding area. The group had been issued strict safety instructions by their security detail. Rio’s crime and violence rates were high and not a week before they were there, an American tourist had been stabbed and killed for his bike. Ken was also warned specifically not to draw the attention of those in the favelas to his cameras as Gangsters were liable to shoot in their direction for mistaken fear that the cameras were guns. With this unnerving introduction to the assignment, Rob recalls watching Ken stroll about the platform, nonplussed, collecting photographs as everyone else fidgeted nervously, itching to return to the hotel. Once satisfied, he ambled back to the group and they took off. Rob’s overriding memory of the episode is the constant rattle of ‘let’s get the f***k out of here!’ in his head!




The next day’s work promised further adventure. Just before sunrise, the crew made their way to a helipad near Copacabana Beach. The task was to capture the bay from high above with the most dramatic light possible. Rob, Ken and his assistant took off in a small helicopter. There was barely room for them between boxes of camera equipment and the pilot’s seat. ‘However’, as Rob grins, the cabin shortly became more spacious. Once they were in position, Ken undid his seatbelt and stepped out onto the helicopter’s landing skid. With one hand on his camera and the other gripping the strap of his former seatbelt, he proceeded to fire away, reeling off multiple rolls of film until he was satisfied.

 

After forty minutes of death-defying photography, he climbed back inside and the pilot made for the helipad. No doubt to Rob and everyone else's relief! Back on firm ground, Ken was again unperturbed about the danger he had just been in. ‘He did what he did to get the shot’ said Rob, who recalls watching him diving through big waves in a Speedo when the crew stopped at Copacabana Beach on the way back to the hotel. Incredibly the crew took to the skies once more that evening to capture the same view at sunset, with Ken risking his life again in the same fashion! ‘Some bravery’, says Rob who admits Ken was extremely ‘gung-ho’ in the way that he went about his work!

 

Almost comically, on the third day, Ken’s commitment caught up with him. Stood on the platform directly underneath Christ the Redeemer, the plan was to have Ken get some shots of the bay below to provide a backup perspective to the one taken from the helicopter. With a grin, Rob remembers watching Ken furiously protect his camera’s position for hours on end in the blazing sun. Being a massive tourist draw, the small platform teemed with visitors all day, forty degree temperatures not enough to dissuade them. Nonetheless, Ken stood in the same position for hours waiting for the light to fall perfectly upon the bay employing stern elbow and shoulder prods if ever someone got too close to encroaching upon his shot.

 

Meanwhile, Rob and his colleagues watched from the shade as the shadow of Christ the Redeemer arched across the bay like a holy sundial. Later that evening, Ken turned up to dinner and promptly left without so much as a drink complaining that he felt ‘funny’. Hardly surprised, the crew watched bemused as the sunstricken photographer stumbled out of the restaurant and back to his room!

 

Sunstroke was the lesser of many evils that could have befallen Ken in Rio and the shoot was a resounding success! On returning to Europe, Ronaldo’s portrait was obtained and added to the final image along with elements superimposed from other photographs Ken had taken on the trip. Rob’s resounding impression of working with Ken was that of his mad genius. ‘He had a presence’ [..] and this cheeky glint in his eye’. There was little he wouldn’t do for a photograph and the trip to Rio certainly demonstrated this. The type of assignment was immaterial, reportage or commercial, Ken was going to execute the photograph he had in mind and nothing, including concerns for his safety, could stand in the way.

 

Big thanks to Rob for sharing his stories of Ken.

3 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Commenti


bottom of page