Selected Photography Assignments & Case Studies

Justin Mott’s photography assignments range from international editorial features and long-form documentary work to commercial campaigns. The selected case studies below show the brief, the work, and the outcome for assignments made across Vietnam, Asia, and beyond.

For the full publication list and tearsheets, see Justin’s Press page. For the documentary projects that underpin much of this work, see the personal projects.

InterContinental Hotel Group

The Solo Traveler, Japan

Brief

IHG needed lifestyle imagery for InterContinental Beppu, built around the experience of traveling alone to one of Japan’s best-known hot spring towns.

The work

Over five days in Beppu, Justin photographed a solo travel story following one model through the hotel, its amenities, and the surrounding onsen town, balancing luxury hospitality with a sense of personal discovery.

Outcome

The shoot produced a narrative lifestyle image library for InterContinental Beppu, connecting the property to the surrounding hot spring town.

Person in a robe stands at open glass doors, watching a sunset over hills and the sea from a modern bedroom.

Woman relaxing in an outdoor pool along a modern building, overlooking a coastal city and distant mountains at sunset.”] ,

Back view of a person standing in a steaming blue pool, one arm raised above the water.

A woman in a white tank top sits cross‑legged in a grassy field, meditating with eyes closed under a canopy of trees.

A craftsman in a blue robe sits in the dark, weaving long bamboo strips with his hands.

Row of empty wine glasses lined up on a wooden bar shelf with a gold geometric metal backdrop behind them.

Looking up through tall green bamboo stalks toward the bright sky

Orange woven ribbon sculpture laid on a speckled gray tiled floor, casting dramatic shadows.

Close-up of water streaming over a dark, curved surface with bright highlights against a black background (high-contrast image).

Nike

Nike Sustainability, Vietnam

Brief

Nike needed documentary photography for corporate responsibility storytelling around sustainability and worker wellbeing at one of its manufacturing facilities in Vietnam.

The work

Over two days in Ho Chi Minh City, Justin photographed the people and programs behind the brand, from family support initiatives to workplace safety and labor practices inside the facility.

Outcome

The assignment gave Nike a human, ground-level visual record of its responsibility programs in Vietnam, connecting corporate commitments to the workers and communities behind the product.

Students in blue shirts eat from metal meal trays in a crowded cafeteria; foreground shows rice and curry dishes on trays while others dine in the background.

Person wearing a surgical mask walks through a dim room, reaching for items on a shelf near a window.

Young woman with a red headband smiling as she looks out a train window at night.

Woman in a white uniform with a light blue cap and lanyard standing on a shaded outdoor path, looking ahead.

Two women push a wheeled cart stacked with many red-and-white shoe boxes along a paved outdoor path.

Woman in a blue uniform and pink headband cutting fabric with scissors at a workstation in a textile workshop with pink partitions behind her

Woman with a lanyard stepping off a pink bus labeled 60P-2790, carrying a plastic bag.

Worker in a light blue cap looking down at a row of colorful thread cones on a textile production line, blurred foreground and background.

Leica

Northern White Rhinos, Kenya

Brief

Leica was building a global brand campaign around the idea that “the love of the world deserves witnesses.” They needed a story that carried the weight of the line.

The work

Justin proposed his ongoing documentary on the last two northern white rhinos on Earth, Najin and Fatu, photographed at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. The series was already underway as a personal project. Leica licensed the work for the global campaign.

Outcome

The campaign ran internationally across Leica’s owned channels, point-of-sale, and partner press. Justin’s work and the campaign tag line have become associated with each other.

Ol Pejeta Image Copyright Justin Mott 2019

Fatu and Najin Images

Man in a green hat stands beside a large white rhinoceros grazing in a grassy field at sunset.

Najin, the elder of the two northern white rhinos, is looked after by one of the Kenya Wildlife Service Veterinary staff while undergoing anesthesia during the ovum pick up procedure on Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.

National Geographic

The Beauty of Vietnam

Brief

After more than a decade living and working in Vietnam, Justin wanted to make a personal project that honored his adopted home and showed the country beyond the familiar travel routes.

The work

He created As Above So Below, a photographic series pairing aerial views with ground-level images of Vietnam’s landscapes and people, from Ha Giang’s mountain passes to the coast of Phu Quoc. The project combined drone photography made under Justin’s direction with documentary images made on the ground.

Outcome

The series was published by National Geographic Travel as a feature on Vietnam seen from above and below.

Aerial view of green tea plantations with curved rows on a misty hillside.

Person wearing a straw conical hat walks between neatly trimmed tea bushes on a misty plantation.

Aerial view of a coral reef with two swimmers in clear turquoise water.

Hand holding a black sea urchin with long, spiky spines over clear turquoise water

Person sitting on a jagged rock outcrop with a bundle of bamboo wind instruments on their back, overlooking misty mountains at sunset/sunrise.

Sunbeams break through the clouds onto a deep green valley with a winding river between rugged mountains.

Aerial view of a crowded outdoor market with colorful tarps over stalls and narrow walkways.

Aerial view of terraced green fields with mist rolling over the terraces.

InterContinental Hotel Group

The Flagship Resort, Vietnam

Brief

IHG needed a global lifestyle campaign for its flagship InterContinental resort in Da Nang, capturing the property as a luxury coastal destination.

The work

Over four days, Justin directed models and styled scenes across the resort, photographing the guest experience through interiors, amenities, and the surrounding coastal setting.

Outcome

The campaign gave IHG a global image library for InterContinental Da Nang, presenting the resort through its architecture, service, dining, and coastal setting.

Beach resort with white buildings on a green hillside at sunset, with a calm bay and a small boat on the water.

Couple in a woven boat at sunset, with a boatman steering and resort buildings along a hillside behind them.

Man in light shirt leaning on wooden railing beside a studio-style resort over a pond surrounded by lush hills and palm trees at sunset relief lighting

Person standing on stone steps inside a traditional pavilion at sunset, sunburst behind them.

Woman in a white áo dài with a conical hat stands in the foreground as a hillside resort village and green mountains loom behind.

Ornate red-cushioned sofa on a dark wooden deck facing a turquoise bay and green hills under a blue sky, framed by stone walls.

Silhouetted passerby with a hat walking past an open seaside balcony, seen through dark decorative windows with a circular fountain in the foreground.

Luxurious bedroom with a four-poster canopy bed draped in white, rich wooden beams, and a seating area with yellow cushions by a sunlit window.Outside view of greenery on a balcony.

Restoration Hardware

The Marble Artisan, Vietnam

Brief

RH needed photography for its annual Source Book, documenting the craft behind hand-carved white Vietnamese marble pieces featured in the collection.

The work

In Ho Chi Minh City, Justin photographed the workshop and portraits of craftsman Vivek Chaudhary, focusing on the people, tools, and handwork behind the finished marble pieces.

Outcome

The shoot gave RH’s Source Book a human craft story, tracing the finished marble pieces back to the workshop, tools, and handwork behind them.

Man with gray beard and glasses stands in a marble workshop beside a suspended cylindrical marble piece strapped with orange lifting slings.

Man with black-framed glasses peeking over a white railing, looking downward

Close-up of a weathered hand with dirt on fingers resting along a ribbed metal surface, like a grill or grate.

Close-up of a hand holding a pencil and writing on a wooden panel beneath a table, beige sleeve visible

Two Woodworkers in a workshop: a woman wearing a conical hat and mask marks wood while a man with gray hair and beard leans over a workbench to inspect a wooden panel.

Close-up of a cracked gray rock exposing pale beige crystalline material inside the hollow.

Close-up of a spinning grinding wheel with water spray splashing onto a metal surface, illustrating an industrial grinding process.

Man with gray hair and beard in a black shirt and glasses leans over a large circular stone slab, inspecting it in a workshop.

Man wearing a face mask polishes a white round surface with a power sander in a dusty workshop.

WWF

Vietnam’s Vanishing Forests

Brief

WWF needed documentary photography for a landscape-scale conservation project in Central Vietnam, where forests and wetlands are under pressure from deforestation, biodiversity loss, climate vulnerability, and illegal wildlife trade.

The work

Over ten days, Justin photographed WWF’s conservation work across the landscape, documenting forests, wildlife protection efforts, and the people working to protect biodiversity while supporting the communities who live alongside it.

Outcome

The photographs helped WWF tell the story of a conservation model built around nature, climate, and people, connecting Vietnam’s threatened forests to the fieldwork and communities shaping their future.

Aerial view of rolling hills at sunrise with warm sun rays over a valley and winding roads.

Group of soldiers in camouflage uniforms hiking through dense ferns in a tropical forest.

Three people in green uniforms in a forest attach a data logger to a tree; one crouches placing a device on the trunk while others observe.

Park ranger in a khaki uniform reaching toward a tree in a sunlit forest, smiling.

Person in a dark green uniform crouches among dense garden greenery, inspecting foliage.

Blue sign with a QR code attached to a tree trunk in a sunlit forest.

Aerial view of dense green forested mountains with a winding road cutting through the trees.

Silhouette of a person climbing a chain-link fence against a bright sky, framed by tree branches above.

Tiger lying on the floor of a cage, bars in the foreground and staring toward the camera.

The New York Times

The Golden Land, Myanmar

Brief

The New York Times needed a travel story from Myanmar at a moment when the country was beginning to open to outside visitors.

The work

Over seven days, Justin photographed across Myanmar, from the temple plains of Bagan to the streets, markets, and everyday life, shaping the country’s travel story.

Outcome

The photographs ran as a New York Times Travel feature on Myanmar, pairing the country’s historic sites with the life of its streets and markets.

Colorful laundry room with green walls and blue partitions; a purple curtain in the center shows a shadowy raised hand.

Silhouetted child facing a concrete wall, reaching toward a large shadow of a hand on the wall beside them in a sunlit outdoor scene.

Line of Buddhist monks in saffron robes standing barefoot in a line, each holding a metal alms bowl at sunrise in a dusty village yard.

Sunset over a landscape of silhouetted temples and trees, with a bright orange sky and glowing sun centered on the horizon.

Two young Buddhist monks in red robes walk barefoot on a sunlit path, with dappled shadows around them.

Child sits on a woven mat, looking into a small wooden mirror while a pink basin sits nearby.

Reflection of a person in a red robe seen through a glass window, with colorful interior and outdoor reflections visible in the panes.

Monks in orange robes playing a ball game in a courtyard with a gold-roofed temple in the background

Silhouetted person kneels in prayer inside a dim temple, warm candlelight reflecting off gold ritual objects to the right.

The New York Times

Bean to Bar, Vietnam

Brief

The New York Times Style Magazine was publishing a food story on Marou, the Ho Chi Minh City chocolate makers turning Vietnamese cacao into single-origin bars. They needed photography that could make the craft, place, and people behind the story visible.

The work

Over three days in Ho Chi Minh City, Justin photographed Marou’s bean-to-bar world, from the makers and production details to the finished chocolate, grounding the story in the textures of Vietnamese cacao and craft.

Outcome

The photographs ran with a New York Times feature on Marou and Vietnamese chocolate, bringing the company’s bean-to-bar story to an international readership.

Two men pose leaning against a palm tree in a sunny tropical garden. A beige shirt and a light gray shirt with a scarf, both relaxed.

Pile of striped cacao pods in yellow, red, orange, and green hues, piled together.

Hands pressing cocoa beans on a drying rack outdoors, spreading them evenly in the sun.

Close-up of hands over a bed of cacao beans on the ground, catching beans as they fall in warm sunlight

Three men examine cocoa beans spread on a sun-dried drying rack outdoors with trees behind them.

Hands holding a metal rack filled with small round roasted cocoa beans arranged in neat rows.

Worker wearing a blue hairnet, white mask, and orange apron stands with hands clasped in front of stacked colorful bags in a warehouse

Close-up of a metal mixer stirring melted chocolate in a spinning vat.

Stack of four small cigar boxes with red patterned sides, labeled 'Single Origin Vietnam', resting on coarse burlap fabric.

Forbes

Vietnam’s First Billionaire

Brief

Forbes was profiling Pham Nhat Vuong, founder of Vingroup and Vietnam’s first billionaire, in a story about his rise and the country’s emerging private wealth.

The work

In Hanoi, Justin photographed Vuong for the feature, creating portraits of a business figure whose company had become closely tied to Vietnam’s new era of development.

Outcome

The photographs ran with Forbes’ profile of Vuong and Vingroup, giving the story a human portrait of the entrepreneur behind one of Vietnam’s most visible companies.

The New York Times

Saigon’s Coffee Culture, Vietnam

Brief

The New York Times needed photography for a Travel guide to Ho Chi Minh City’s coffee scene, from old-school cafes to the city’s newer specialty coffee shops.

The work

Over two days, Justin photographed Saigon’s coffee culture across the city, documenting the people, rituals, and places behind Vietnamese coffee, from longstanding robusta shops to new wave cafes.

Outcome

The photographs ran with a New York Times Travel feature on the best coffee in Ho Chi Minh City, giving readers a visual guide to one of the city’s defining daily rituals.

Woman in a pink shirt stands at a cluttered kitchen counter, preparing food in a dim, tiled room.

Street-side cafe with older men seated at metal tables while motorcycles pass by on a busy street in front of a blue storefront gate.

Outdoor cafe scene with three elderly men seated at a metal table; the central man in a plaid shirt looks to the side as another man in the foreground holds up a smartphone.

Tall glass of iced coffee with two straws resting on a weathered turquoise railing at dusk/place of a cafe.

Person in a pink shirt pours steaming liquid from a metal pitcher into a large pot on a stove, kitchen steam rising from the pot.

A man sits on red plastic stools in front of a closed metal shutter, sipping from a cup with a straw beside a dusty motorcycle.

Three men sit on red plastic stools outside a shop; one reads a colorful magazine while others chat nearby, with drinks on a small red table.

Stacked red and blue plastic chairs stored against a wall indoors.

Rows of clear plastic cups filled with dark liquid on a table, stacked in two levels, with a red ring around each cup; blurred newspaper frames in the background.

Smithsonian Magazine

Minds of Giants, Myanmar

Brief

Smithsonian Magazine needed photography for a science cover story on Asian elephant research in Myanmar, where scientists were studying elephant cognition and behavior to better understand human-elephant conflict.

The work

Over four days in the Myanmar countryside, Justin photographed researchers fitting elephants with GPS collars, observing their behavior, and working alongside the mahouts whose lives are closely tied to the animals.

Outcome

The photographs ran with Smithsonian’s feature on elephant intelligence and conservation, giving the research a field-level visual story of scientists, mahouts, and the elephants at the center of the work.

Man rides an elephant standing in a tranquil river at sunrise, misty trees in the background.

Silhouette of a person wearing a wide-brim hat riding an elephant at sunset, against an orange sky.

Close-up of an elephant's wrinkled face, showing dark gray skin and a golden eye.

Chain of elephants with riders along a riverbank near village huts under a large tree.

Close-up of a person in a white T-shirt gripping a dusty abrasive wheel mounted on a metal fixture in a workshop.

Team of people surrounding a large elephant, performing a veterinary procedure on its leg outdoors.

A large adult elephant with a calf beside it as a person sits on the adult's back in a rural yard.

Boy in a blue uniform sits on a weathered wooden fence in a dry, open field with trees in the distance.

Man in a straw hat rides a large elephant while two handlers guide it in a dusty, tree-lined yard.

Smithsonian Magazine

The Oldest Art on Earth, Indonesia

Brief

Smithsonian Magazine needed photography for a feature on ancient cave art in Sulawesi, where newly dated paintings were challenging long-held ideas about the origins of art and human imagination.

The work

Over six days in Indonesia’s Maros valley, Justin photographed the limestone caves, the hand stencils and animal paintings inside them, and the archaeologists working to date and understand the sites.

Outcome

The photographs ran with Smithsonian’s feature on some of the oldest-known cave art in the world, bringing readers into the caves and the research behind a discovery that reshaped the story of early human creativity.

Man sitting on a rock in a field of tall white flowers, wearing a dark shirt and a headlamp that is lit.

View through a rough rock tunnel opening to a sunlit valley with greenery and distant mountains/karst formations.

Silhouette of a person wearing a headlamp at sunset, with rugged hills in the background.

Cave explorer wearing a helmet with a headlamp, holding a bright portable light inside a dark cave.

Person kneeling in a dark cave, reaching toward a sunlit rock wall.

Cave wall with a reddish-brown handprint stencil on rough rock surface.

Man in a dim, cluttered workshop inspects a pink tool at a crowded workbench covered with boxes, jars, and soil samples.

Person sitting on the floor inside a tarp-covered shelter, sorting many small packets laid out in neat rows on cardboard sheets.

Silhouette of a person in a dark cave, pointing a torch toward illuminated rock walls.

The Washington Post

The Sloth Lady, Suriname

Brief

For Kindred Guardians, Justin was documenting people who dedicate their lives to animal conservation. In Suriname, that led him to Monique Pool, the conservationist known as the Sloth Lady.

The work

Over eight days in Paramaribo, Justin photographed Pool and the Green Heritage Fund Suriname as they rescued, rehabilitated, and returned sloths to the wild amid forest loss, urbanization, and climate pressures.

Outcome

The story was published by The Washington Post’s In Sight, bringing Pool’s work and the more than 1,000 sloths her organization has rescued to a wider visual audience.

Volunteer sprays water on a brown dog inside a metal crate, using a yellow hose outdoors.

Woman in a green shirt smiles at a gray koala reaching over a wooden table on a deck railing backdrop.

A sloth perched in a bowl on a kitchen scale while a person records it on a smartphone nearby.

Sloth gripping horizontal bars with long claws, dark background behind.

Person in a beige bucket hat and navy shirt leaning on a boat railing on a wide muddy river with dense green banks and a blue sky filled with clouds behind him.

Rescue worker on a boat lifts a large plastic animal crate while a wet brown otter clings to a towel nearby.

Aerial view of a winding river through a forest at sunset, with a glowing sun low on the horizon.

Brown sloth clinging to a tree, reaching for green leaves to eat in a lush rainforest.

Pair of black rubber rain boots on a dark wooden floor next to a red paneled wall, with a colorful tote bag on a chair nearby in dusk light.

The Washington Post

Survival of a Species, Kenya

Brief

After first photographing Najin and Fatu, the last two northern white rhinos, Justin returned to Ol Pejeta to document the BioRescue team’s attempt to help save the subspecies from extinction.

The work

Over four days in Kenya, he photographed the December procedure to harvest eggs from Najin and Fatu, following the veterinarians, scientists, and caretakers working under extraordinary pressure.

Outcome

The story was published by The Washington Post’s In Sight, showing the fragile hope behind a conservation effort that had already produced viable northern white rhino embryos.

A person's hand resting on an elephant's wrinkled gray skin near its eye.

Close-up of dark-skinned hands holding a tiny sprout with two delicate roots.

Two park rangers in green uniforms walk along a muddy path with a white rhinoceros blocking the trail under a cloudy sky.

Researchers in black BioRescue shirts handle a large white cooler, releasing thick dry-ice fog in a lab setting with people nearby.

Man wearing a hat and olive outfit stands on a wooden fence, looking down at a large rhinoceros in a grassy enclosure beneath him

Field veterinarians treat a large elephant on a blue tarp, using portable medical equipment while a crowd watches nearby.

Silhouette of a researcher looking into a microscope inside a dim shipping-container lab, backlit by bright exterior light.

A small propeller airplane on a tarmac with several men loading a gray cargo case and bags nearby.

Plan an Assignment with Justin

For new editorial or commercial assignments, start with a contact form covering project type, location, dates, brief, and budget range. Justin replies within 24 hours on business days.