Behind the Food
Most resort photography fights against its surroundings — golf courses, generic pools, interiors that could belong to any city. Mandai Rainforest Resort by Banyan Tree, which opened in 2025 inside Singapore's Mandai Wildlife Reserve, has the opposite problem: the setting is so specific that getting it wrong would waste the entire point of the place.
The brief
Campaign photography built around the resort's biophilic design — architecture built to sit inside the rainforest rather than clear space for itself, treehouse-style suites, and a location genuinely next to Singapore Zoo and the Night Safari. The brief was ongoing, not a single shoot: Fifth Hous supports Mandai on retainer, not a one-off delivery.
Why "biophilic" is a photography problem, not just a design term
A building designed to disappear into its environment is difficult to photograph in a way that still reads as intentional, considered architecture rather than just "a hotel near some trees." The actual creative challenge was finding compositions where the built environment and the rainforest read as one continuous idea — not a resort with nature nearby, but a resort genuinely inside it.
What an ongoing retainer actually looks like
Rather than one campaign shoot and done, this is structured as continuous hospitality photography Singapore's newest luxury property can draw on as it rolls out new content — seasonal changes in the reserve, new suite openings, restaurant content for Forage and Planter's Shed. A retainer model exists specifically for properties whose story keeps developing after launch, not properties that only need one hero image and a press release.
Why this client matters for the portfolio
Mandai is the clearest proof that the studio works across borders, not just across industries — Melbourne-based, actively producing for a flagship Singapore property. For a studio built on "hospitality, fashion, and property," a resort this distinctive, on retainer, is close to the ideal example of what the model is actually for.
You can see the full Mandai Rainforest Resort case study here.
