Brightwater Clothing | 2024 Lookbook

April 03, 2025 in Editorial, Commercial

Photographing the annual Brightwater Clothing Lookbook is one of my favorite jobs all year! This year marked the seventh series of images I have created for this company. Bill Damberg, owner of Brightwater Clothing, is one of the most generous people I know and the curation of his collections each year reflect his warmth and love for the great outdoors.

2024 took us to Ely, Minnesota where our team met up with a few locals to join the fun. Peter Schurke, Nordic skipper and dogsled guide, stopped by before his next adventure, which was super cool to see! The owners of Ely Bike & Kicksled showed us around their shop and the town.

This was the winter-that-wasn’t in Minnesota, so snow was at a minimum. Instead I leaned into blue skies, the texture and rich earthy tones of the thawed ground and the ice that was still holding strong!

Below are some of my favorite images and a preview of this year’s final design!

PRODUCTION TEAM//

Client: Brightwater Clothing

Photographer: Eliesa Johnson

Art Director + Design: Bethany Hway

Copy Writer: John DuBois

Copy Editor: Steve Waryan

Jewelry: Helen Wang

Sponsors + Spirits: New France Wine Company, 3Leche and MN Pure Clear Ice

Brightwater | Fall + Winter 2019 / 2020 Look Book

December 16, 2019 in Editorial, Fashion

This last spring, I had the true pleasure of photographing another look book for Brightwater Clothing! Many of you might remember last year’s spectacular photo shoot and this year’s roundup was just as fantastic! Shop owner Bill Damberg and his team brought together an amazing group of people to be a part of this project and I am, once again, thrilled at how this turned out. We even had some super idyllic snow fall JUST as we were about to wrap - it was the perfect moment for sure.

Below are some of my favorite spreads from the look book, which is designed by Bethany at Grayscale. A big thank you to everyone who was a part of this shoot!

BEHIND THE SCENES//

Brightwater Clothing & Gear | 2019 Look Book

December 17, 2018 in Editorial, Fashion

Last March I hopped in a car and drove up to Ely Lake, MN with a bunch of friends to photograph a project for Bill Damberg and his store, Brightwater Clothing. Brightwater is a fantastically curated store in Excelsior, Minnesota and for this shoot, we travelled to Bill’s family cabin to set the scene. This shoot was magic and here’s why - to be honest, there wasn’t a lot of production. There wasn’t a lot of thought, but there was intention. The idea was simple - lets get some rad people together and they can all do what they enjoy best. Lets document a brilliant day on the lake and see what happens.

What happened was one of the most organic and beautiful shoots I had all year and I’m so happy to say that the 2018 / 2019 Winter Look Book for Brightwater is now live! Below are some of my favorite spreads and some fun behind the scenes!

LOVEe