PR FEATURE | BUMMER SUMMER ’24 | FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER SOURAV MISHRA
Some fashion campaigns begin with a location. Others begin with an idea strong enough to create the location from scratch. For Bummer’s Summer ’24 campaign, Bangalore-based fashion photographer and advertising photographer Sourav Mishra chose the second route. Instead of taking the production to a beach, Mishra and the team at GlamFlame Studios recreated an entire sea beach inside the studio, building a playful summer world around Bummer’s bold colours, youthful personality and expressive innerwear.
The concept was simple in spirit but ambitious in execution: the campaign photographs had to feel as if the models were genuinely spending a carefree day by the sea, while giving the production team complete control over lighting, colour, styling and composition. The studio floor was covered with real sand to create an authentic foreground and tactile surface. A huge digital screen in the background brought in the ocean, blue sky and tropical landscape, allowing the practical beach set and digital environment to come together as one convincing visual space.
For Mishra, the set could not stop at sand and a beach background. The fashion campaign needed details that would make every frame feel lived-in rather than decorative. The team sourced beach umbrellas, towels, sunglasses, hats, coolers, surf and body boards, drinks and other summer props. Each object was selected not only for its connection to a beach holiday, but also for its colour. Bright yellows, blues and greens were deliberately repeated across the set to complement Bummer’s vibrant prints and playful brand language.
That colour discipline became one of the defining elements of the Bummer campaign photography. The brand’s innerwear is driven by bold prints, youthful graphics and expressive colour, so the environment needed to extend the same attitude. Props were not treated as fillers. They became part of the visual identity, creating images where the product, styling, production design and background all spoke the same language.
Lighting was equally important to making the constructed beach believable. Mishra combined continuous light with flash, a technique that has become an important part of his signature fashion photography style. The continuous sources established a natural ambient feel, while flash added shape, crispness and controlled highlights to the models and products. This hybrid lighting approach created the sensation of bright summer sunlight while maintaining the precision expected from high-end commercial fashion photography.
The result is deliberately raw yet polished. Rather than making the images feel overly perfect or obviously studio-made, Mishra retained a sense of immediacy and spontaneity. The photographs still clearly showcase the fit, colour and graphic prints of Bummer’s innerwear, but they also carry movement, humour and personality. Models throw sand into the air, lounge on towels, interact with beach props and each other, and occupy the set as if it were a real summer afternoon instead of a conventional innerwear catalogue shoot.
The project also demonstrates how studio fashion photography in Bangalore can go far beyond a plain backdrop and a standard lighting setup. When production design, fashion styling, lighting and photography are developed together, a controlled indoor space can become almost any location. In this case, GlamFlame Studios became a tropical beach without the uncertainty of changing weather, harsh uncontrolled sunlight, travel logistics or location restrictions. At the same time, real sand and physical props preserved the textures and imperfections that make the finished campaign feel tangible.
For Sourav Mishra, who is also the founder of GlamFlame Studios, the Bummer Summer ’24 shoot reflects a larger approach to commercial image-making: create an environment that helps the talent feel the story instead of simply asking them to pose for it. When models are surrounded by the right light, colours, textures and objects, their performance becomes more instinctive, and that energy translates directly into the final photograph.
Bummer’s Summer ’24 campaign ultimately became more than an innerwear campaign with a beach theme. It was an exercise in building a complete visual world inside a photography studio, using real sand, a large digital background, colour-coordinated beach props and a carefully balanced mix of continuous and flash lighting. The finished series feels bright, playful, youthful and unmistakably summery while staying closely aligned with Bummer’s visual identity.
In an industry where outdoor location shoots are often treated as the default route to authenticity, Sourav Mishra’s Bummer campaign offers another perspective: sometimes the most convincing location is the one a photographer builds from scratch. More of Sourav Mishra’s fashion, advertising and commercial photography work can be explored at www.souravmishra.in.
