Celebrating Fifty Years of the Milwaukee Ballet in One Image
Saturn Lounge Creative Director Eric Olson has always had a deep appreciation for the arts. Eric has a flair for drawing the audience in with his photography and he makes a habit out of having fun while he’s doing it. His portfolio features everything from international lifestyle, landscape and city imagery to tabletop glamour shots of branded apparel. One look at Eric’s portfolio and you can see that a great deal of his professional body of work includes capturing movement in pictures – sports, dance, fitness and active lifestyle. He has been known to capture the greatest height of a Ollie skateboarding jump, and or the beautiful lines of the elegant ballet position; the arabesque. When the Milwaukee Ballet approached Eric several months ago about creating an image that would represent the Milwaukee Ballet’s 50th Anniversary, he soon got to work.
Eric collaborated with the Milwaukee Ballet team to come up with an image that would highlight the talent in each character, making each “character study” a story on it’s own. He knew that he wanted to take separate photos of each character, and composite them all into one poignant image. The final composited image features a variety of the Ballet’s characters, in which Eric photographed individually over a three day period. The dancing doll in Coppélia, the iconic Nutcracker, the high flying Peter Pan and more.
The initial stages started with Saturn Lounge Graphic Designer Malory Larson, sketching out potential scenarios and placement of the characters. In the Saturn Lounge studio, Eric photographed each character at an angle that would work with their placement within the composited image. No detail was overlooked; from makeup to costume, to the precise poses in each of the character studies. This was continually a work in progress as the image unfolded, as Eric wanted to achieve a refined, well balanced image overall. Under Eric’s creative direction, Saturn Lounge Digital Artist Mark Heinrich, digitally arranged the characters on the stage into one complete, composited image. No component was missed, from Tinkerbell’s playful interaction with Hook, to the magical glow between Copp and Dross. 
Check out Peter Pan’s amazing aerial agility, in this behind the scenes video montage:
The 50th Anniversary image will be featured in the 2019 season brochure, as well as used in other local advertising.
To learn more about the Milwaukee Ballet and it’s upcoming performances, and to buy tickets be sure to visit https://www.milwaukeeballet.org/
For more information on the Ballet’s golden anniversary season, and to read more about their move to a new facility, check out the official press release.
