'Personal Space' Turns Office Cubicles Into Works of Art

Late last year, the New York Times published an article about the resurgence of cubicles and how employers—eager to get workers back in the office—are allowing them to decorate their workspaces in creative, highly personal ways.

After reading the story, Neil Kremer and Cory Johnson, photographers and principals at Kremer/Johnson Photography in Los Angeles, created “Personal Space,” a series of images that finds employees—well, actors playing employees—inhabiting hyper-stylized cubes reflecting their passions.

One setup transforms a cubicle into a sauna, while another resembles a Tiki bar. There’s also a spaceship, a backyard (complete with working garden hose ) and a comfy parlor.

Kremer and Johnson created the concepts and handled casting, art direction, set design and construction. They built the cubicles and shot the photos in their Redondo Beach studio.

The duo regularly shoot for clients such as Ford, Hulu, Bulletproof Coffee and Joybird. Here, they discuss recent projects and reflect on the making of “Personal Space.”

MUSE: What was it about that New York Times article that inspired this project?

Neil: It seemed very timely. It seemed like something we could have fun with. We decided to buy a cubicle and start from there.

Have you spent any portion of your careers in a cubicle?

Cory: Yeah. When I was 20, and it was maybe the last time I had an actual job. I was like, “This sucks. I can’t do this.”

Neil: Let’s see—all told, through two different jobs, I guess I had 14 years in a cubicle. I personally didn’t mind it. I like it better than the big open space of today, which I find intrusive.

Cory: I guess my reaction wasn’t so much to the cubicle as it was just the general office environment. I realized really quickly that I’m a terrible employee and just wasn’t suited to the environment.

Neil, you mentioned you bought a cubicle to serve as the base of this project. I assume most people who buy cubicles run big offices and buy them in bulk. Is it easy to buy just one cubicle?

Neil: Well, we live in Los Angeles, and this is not a joke—we can get you a giraffe, a cobra, a 1954 Chevelle and a three-foot-tall monkey that has pink diarrhea—all in one hour.

Cory: It’s all out there.

Neil: There’s so much kind of cottage retail here in strip malls. One guy found there’s a lot of businesses going out of business, or moving employees away from office space into home life. So, he started buying them up and reselling them. This guy’s got 14,000 cubicles in this warehouse, and they’re all beat up. So, he says, “Yeah, pick out what you want, and bring it up front.”

Once you got the cubicle to your studio, which ‘Personal Space’ scenario did you create first?

Cory: The sauna—it was just so awesome and so finished looking. It really leveled up the whole project. We were like, “Well, we can’t really go backwards now. There’s no putting tchotchke’s on desktops. We’ve got to build a spaceship.”

I loved the spaceship. That was so ambitious. How did you come up with the ideas for the  cubicles?

Cory: Conceptually, this was all born out of daydreaming and spitballing ideas. A lot of it was, “What can we actually accomplish building ourselves?” Like the spaceship. That was talked about early on. We were both like, “There’s no way we could build a freakin’ spaceship and make it look cool.” And the more crafty we got, we were just like, “Well, let’s take a stab at that spaceship.” Some of them were spawned by props we found, or casting submissions—that person would look good at a Tiki bar, for example.

Neil: A lot of it came down to believability, too. We wanted it to look like something that someone would really do.

I feel like everyone can relate to Tiki cubicle. Who doesn’t daydream about being on vacation when they are at work? 

Cory: That was basically based on a Trader Vic’s or a Four Seasons kind of bar, and the idea was that this woman went on this amazing vacation once when she was maybe 32 and just had a fantastic time. Saved up her whole early adulthood to go on this trip, and wants to relive that experience every day. It was the place where she’s comfortable and relaxed, and she wanted to bring that kind of vibe to her office. We did a lot of image research on that, trying to find out what these more refined Tiki bars look like. What are the materials they use? What’s the color palette? What are the props? And then we started finding it. Typically, with all of these, we bought a ton of props and had a bunch of art elements on hand and used maybe half of what we had on hand for each thing.

Were there any cubicles that you wanted to create but just couldn’t get done for whatever reason?

Cory: We had a great idea for a crocheted cubicle.

Neil: We wanted to crochet the entire cubicle and everything in it, and it was just too costly.

Why is it important for commercial photographers and other creatives of all means, even those with limited funds, to create personal projects?

Cory: It’s making what you want to make versus being told what to make. One of them is a job, which is an awesome job, and we’re very fortunate to have it. The other one is fun, and we are fortunate to be able to have fun. We didn’t really have a budget for this. I don’t want to spend all of our money. It forced us to get crafty with sourcing props and finding talent that was excited about the concepts and were willing to do it on a dime, and just putting in blood, sweat and tears.

Whether you’re collaborating on a job with a brand or creating a personal project like this one, why do you two work so well together?

Cory: I don’t think a lot of people can do it. It takes a setting aside of your ego and an ability to take criticism and not take anything personally. You kind of got to get out of your own way to be able to work with somebody else in a creative capacity.

Neil: You just can’t take it personally. Like Cory said, you’ve got to check your ego at the door and realize that every bit of criticism is given with the intent of landing on a better product, a better result, and as long as you get your ideas heard, that in itself should take away any ego you have.

Cory: Part of the reason why this works is we have similar aesthetics and tastes, but personality wise, we are not the same at all, and we probably approach projects from a different perspective. I’ll start out with a bigger-picture idea and broad strokes, and Neil hones it. He’s awesome at details and refining things. So, it’s just a really natural and easy partnership.