For any photo shoot, there always seems to be a single most difficult hurdle to get over. For this shoot, it was that no one wanted to volunteer their personal smart phone to be used as the “prop”. – Can’t really blame them, since the device would be useless after we were done with it. Thanks to Craigslist we were able to get a few used devices that were looking for a new home.

Even then, free of emotional connection to the device, some of the pre-production crew were hesitant to begin “styling the prop”, or in reality, smashing the device to bits. After removing the battery, Shepherd Agency Creative Director, Clif Watson rolled up his sleeves, took a hammer and got to work. The phone was driven over several times by an SUV, smashed with a hammer and pieces torn apart by hand to get the right balance between complete destruction and still recognizable.

With all the fragments collected, each piece was placed stylistically while attempting to avoid looking placed to give the appearance that the damage had occurred instantaneously in a Life Shattering moment.

While we have come to love our personal tech devices, and have a hard time picturing our life without them, the intention of this image is to grab people and convey that the device damage is insignificant to the damage caused to a family when a family member has been lost.