The Stencil: CND Soldiers

This Banksy stencil was released around 2005 in print format, with around 700 limited edition prints made available for sale. It was also painted on a wall somewhere in London (Banksy’s book ‘Wall and Piece’ doesn’t have any details about it’s location) and a large canvas version of the stencil was included in an art display in support of political activist Brian Haw at his protest camp in Parliament Square in London in 2006.

The Location:

This image was shot at an old dairy factory on the outskirts of Hamilton. It is one of the coolest locations I have ever come across and it was my boss (at the time) who suggested I go out there to scope it out. There were a couple of other locations I had thought about using, but there was always an issue with painting on the walls of whatever location I chose because it’s not like we could just run away if we got caught. Doing a shoot like this requires time, and a certain amount of control over the situation. You have a lot of equipment, props and people with you and you need to know you can just get on with the job without worrying about getting in trouble for something stupid.

This old dairy factory is now home to a bunch of different Hamilton businesses, people who need a lot of space and don’t mind working out in the country, so they were ok with us painting the wall, so long as we washed it all off afterwards.

Wardrobe/Props etc:

While I was researching this image I was lucky enough to get to go out to one of the NZ Army Hamilton Q Stores to talk to one of the guys there about the different elements of the image (weapons, uniforms etc) and to have a look at what gear they had in storage that I could potentially borrow. As it turned out, I ended up having to get everything elsewhere, but it was still a great help to me because I knew exactly what I needed to look for.

• AK-47 and M-16 replicas (the stencil has both soldiers with M-16s, so the AK-47 is tucked in behind the soldier on the right so you can’t really tell he has the wrong gun..)
• Helmets, shirts, pants and boots were all ex issue army surplus pieces that were either bought or hired
• Web belts and ammunition/gear pouches were all ex issue US Army items bought on ebay
• Aviator Goggles
• I found a Replica PRC-152 radio case on ebay, and that is attached with duct tape to the left soldiers shoulder.
• A lot of people at the exhibition thought that I photoshopped the sign in, but it was actually painted on the wall with red washable poster paint (see shoot details below)

The Shoot:

I had arranged for the peace sign in this image to be painted by a Hamilton street artist who I had met with a number of times before the day of the shoot. He ended up no-showing on the day and didn’t answer his phone when I tried to call him.. we waited for about 20 minutes, and then had to just go to the location and figure something else out. We ended up using some double sided tape as a guide and one of the models painted the sign. Crisis averted, but, of the 50+ people who helped out with this project, he was the only person who let me down. This put us significantly behind schedule, added a lot of stress and made us late for all the subsequent shoots.

The models were lit with the b1600 fitted with the 7 inch reflector and a grid- don’t ask me which one, cos I can’t remember (see gear page for more info).