Corporate events are some of the most rewarding commercial work to photograph. Year-end functions, awards evenings, brand launches, fashion events — every brief is different, but they all share the same underlying need: capture the room when it’s at its best, deliver images the company can use across digital and print, and stay out of the way of the actual event.
What follows is a roundup of five corporate events I’ve photographed across the Western Cape — from Waterfront end-of-year functions to wine launches at vineyards. Each one had a specific brief, a specific energy, and produced a specific kind of image set.
1. Retail Capital — End-of-year function at the V&A Waterfront (2022)
Retail Capital held their end-of-year function at the V&A Waterfront, and I covered the evening from cocktail hour through the formal speeches and into the social part of the night. Year-end corporate events have their own rhythm — the energy in the room shifts as the night progresses, and the photographer has to read those shifts and deliver images that match each phase.
Familiar faces helped — I’d photographed several of the team in other contexts before, which made it easy to anticipate the moments worth capturing. The Waterfront backdrop also did a lot of the work for free; very few corporate functions get to play against Table Mountain at golden hour.
2. Avenue Cape Town — Veuve Clicquot at Val De Vie, Paarl (2021)
Avenue Cape Town commissioned me to photograph the Veuve Clicquot event at Val De Vie estate in Paarl. The fashion was top-notch — guests arrived dressed for the brand, which made the photographer’s job substantially easier. When everyone in the room is camera-ready, the editorial-style frames practically present themselves.
This kind of event sits between corporate function and editorial fashion shoot. The brief was to capture the elegance of the brand experience while still documenting the people there. We worked across the venue — formal portraits during arrivals, candid frames through the tasting, and wider crowd shots during the entertainment.
3. Tradelink — End-of-year function and awards ceremony in Somerset West (2021)
Tradelink held their end-of-year function and awards ceremony in Somerset West. Awards events have a specific photographic challenge built in — you need to capture every single recipient cleanly, in order, while also catching the natural reactions and moments around them. Miss a recipient and you’ve let the company down; miss the reaction and the formal recipient shot looks sterile on its own.
The way I approach awards: shoot the formal handover from the same angle every time so the deliverable is consistent, then float between recipients for the reaction shots and the social moments either side. Tradelink’s evening had genuine warmth in the room, which made the social frames easier than usual.
4. Farmlands Veterinary Practice — Corporate event at Perdeberg (2023)
Farmlands Veterinary Practice held their corporate event at Perdeberg Wine Estate. Wine-estate corporate events have a softer feel than urban corporate functions — the venue does a lot of the heavy lifting on atmosphere, and the photographer can lean into that rather than work against fluorescent boardroom lighting. Perdeberg’s grounds gave plenty of natural-light frames during the day before the event moved indoors.
For a smaller, more focused corporate event like this one, I shoot tighter — fewer wide-room shots, more intimate group frames, more attention on the food, drink and detail of the event. The deliverable was a set the practice could use for their own marketing and social channels through the rest of the year.
5. Survivor Wines — Brand launch event (2022)
Survivor Wines invited me to photograph their official brand launch. Wine launches are a hybrid event — part corporate (the trade and media in the room), part brand experience (the tasting, the storytelling, the atmosphere). Pierre Wahl did the tasting and walked us through what we were supposed to be experiencing, which made the photographic task half done — when the host is engaged and the audience is attentive, the moments find themselves.
This shoot also included some drone work for the wider venue and vineyard context — a useful add-on for a wine brand wanting both intimate event imagery and the broader place-and-terroir story for their marketing. The combination gave Survivor a full visual asset set from a single evening.
What corporate events have in common
Every corporate event I shoot ends up being a small story told in 200-400 frames. Cocktails, speeches, awards, the social tail. The brief is always the same in spirit even if the dress code differs: capture the night the company will want to look back on, deliver images they can use across press, social media and internal comms, stay invisible while doing it.
If you’re planning a corporate event in Cape Town or the Western Cape and need a photographer who has covered everything from year-end functions to brand launches, I’d be glad to chat. Browse my full event photography or get in touch with your brief.
