The focus of commercial photography is creating imagery to sell or promote products and brands. While editorial is less about selling and more about storytelling, the two require strong visual communication and the ability to interpret a brief. New York-based photographer Marcus McDonald believes his sensibilities as a detail-oriented person have lent themselves well to a career that manages to straddle both approaches.

“I’m kind of an obsessive person. Photography lets me take those obsessive patterns and make them into something. The outcome is an aestheticised version of the world as I see it. I get to illustrate the mood, intensity and personality of objects that have introduced themselves to me,” he says.