the night’s offering - from the archive (2024)

a halloween photoshoot inspired by samhain

before the halloween festivities as we know of today, there was samhain (pronounced as ‘SOW-win’ or ‘SAW-win’). it is part of a pagan, celtic spiritual tradition that marks the end of summer, welcoming in the harvest, and bringing in the darker half of the year

samhain is a liminal time, where the boundaries of this world and the otherworld break down, allowing the physical and spiritual world to interact

as christianity spread throughout scotland and ireland, gaining a foothold in pagan communities, church leaders began to reframe samhain as a christian celebration. from the 9th century onwards, the first night of Samhain, the 31st october, became all hallows eve – which morphed into what we know today as halloween

i decided to be inspired by samhain because most halloween campaigns depict familiar symbols and imagery, such as jack-o-lanterns, black cats, spiders, etc. therefore, i wanted to dig deep into the history of halloween and offer something new so that we could stand out amongst a sea of overdone visuals

the graphics also included ogham scripts - an ancient celtic writing system, spelling out the campaign name