BioMarin’s campaign for Voxzogo, a treatment for children with achondroplasia, a rare type of dwarfism, came through Syneos Health. Photographer Director Inti St. Clair hadn’t worked with BioMarin before, but the subject, real families navigating a life-changing treatment, was exactly the type of story she wanted to be trusted with.
The brief called for precise placement of the hero talent in each frame, which ran against her instinct to let kids find their own moments. But these were real patients, so she found that precision through the activity and environment instead of by posing anyone.
Before the shoot, the team interviewed each child’s parents to learn what they loved doing, so they could design scenes where the precision came from the setup itself. They scouted one home with a mix of spaces, since families flew in from across the country, and used camera placement and staging to set the frame.
You can’t ask a toddler to hit a mark, so Inti worked the scenes around each kid instead. Knowing what made each kid laugh, creating the environment and precisely placing the supporting cast brought her cooperation and precision through the activities without ever directing them in the traditional sense. She didn’t want this to read like a typical pharma campaign, clinical and staged. These are kids first. The medical story lives underneath the imagery, not on top of it; the treatment is the reason these kids get to do ordinary, joyful things, so the joy itself became the narrative.
Inti has never been so proud to be part of a pharma campaign. Hearing families talk about their kids one day living independently was unbelievable. One child went from being wheelchair-bound and needing constant care to swimming, climbing, and playing on the playground! She walked away forever changed.
For more of Inti’s work, visit her Workbook portfolio.
Represented by Homestead Creatives.
