Smirnoff Office Party, London, the postcard

Photographer: Michael Joseph
Date: 1970s

Postcard: 154 × 154 mm

A lavish, surreal gathering unfolds like a modern bacchanal. Figures recline among fruit, candles, animals, and sculptural forms, dressed in a collision of fantasy, fashion, and performance. Part Renaissance tableau, part 1970s advertising bravura, the image blurs the line between celebration and excess. Nothing feels staged so much as orchestrated — a moment suspended between indulgence and observation, where every glance and gesture adds to the tension.

Experimental, provocative, and rich with symbolism, the photograph captures an era when advertising dared to be strange, sensual, and unapologetically playful.

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