Photography Highlight
PAISANO & DAUGHERS
Organised chaos
Over a six-month stretch, we worked alongside Paisano & Daughters to capture the full rollout of their ambitious launch — a new-wave hospitality group opening multiple venues and a boutique accommodation offering, all at once. This wasn’t a one-day shoot or a neatly packaged campaign. It was an evolving body of work, unfolding across seasons, build phases, soft launches, staff training, menu testing and real-time openings.
We shot in kitchens mid-fitout, dining rooms on the edge of completion, bakeries in full service, and rooms still being dressed. It was multiple shoot days, staggered across time and location, each with its own set of constraints and creative cues. Thousands of frames were captured. Nearly 1,000 made the final cut — a robust visual archive spanning brand, digital, press and editorial use.
Every image was built with intention: loose, but dialled. Cinematic in tone, but never staged to the point of stiffness. The work needed to live across platforms and formats without losing personality. Something that could sit on a glossy PR spread, but also feel natural in a founder’s Instagram carousel. Just the right amount of polish, held together by instinct, trust, and a shared sense of taste.
Works in progress
These shoots required finesse and speed at the same time. When we kicked off, we were embedded across six active job sites, each at a different stage of the build, with dust still settling and timelines moving. Our role wasn’t just to document the finished product, but to help shape the visual language of a brand mid-formation - while the concrete was still drying and the menus were still being written.
Across multiple venues - a wine bar, a bakery, a dining room, a courtyard space, and a boutique accommodation offering - we worked closely with the Paisano & Daughters team to design a cohesive photographic identity that could stretch across wildly different environments and still feel unified. That meant thinking in tones, textures, framing, and light. It meant knowing what needed to be shot soft and warm, and what needed to feel raw and loud. We didn’t just show up and shoot, we collaborated at every step. From planning to execution, this was a creative relationship built on mutual trust and clarity of vision.
We adjusted as they did. If a space wasn’t ready, we pivoted. If the light turned, we shifted. If service was about to start, we worked fast and invisible. There were no safe or static days - just a shared goal to build something sharp and lasting.
Each shoot had a different rhythm, but the through-line was always the same: bring character to the frame, keep the quality high, and don’t let the pace get in the way of the story. We styled on the fly, shot in natural light where possible, and moved through the spaces like guests - eyes open, looking for moments that weren’t on a shot list.
Over six months, Machine delivered close to 1,000 fully edited stills - across brand, campaign, PR, digital, and internal decks. Every image was considered part of the larger visual system. Nothing generic. Nothing throwaway. The work needed to last beyond launch week. It needed to tell a story on a scroll, in print, on a wall, or in a pitch.
This wasn’t a one-and-done job. It was an ongoing creative partnership - the kind where we know the client’s voice, they trust ours, and the end result speaks for itself.
Work That Belongs
Where It Lands
Our focus from day one was clarity, respect and cultural relevance. Every frame, every word, every design decision was made with purpose, grounded in the knowledge that this work needed to land in community and live there meaningfully.
We worked across scripting, storyboarding, visual design and full animation production, building a body of content that was not only practical and easy to understand, but deeply aligned with the people and places it was made for. Something that didn’t just explain policy, but felt like it belonged.
We’re proud to have helped tell this story, and even prouder to support a vital Australian program doing the work where it’s most needed, with the people who know it best.
