Nine Vicious × Custom Grillz, in the green set.

I photographed Nine Vicious in jeweler Marcus Adam's custom grillz, then helped promote them. One question guided the work: how do you show a piece of jewelry to more of the right people?

For: Marcus Adam, custom jeweler
What I did: Photographed Nine Vicious in his grillz, then marketing and promotion
Result: 6K likes on his most-liked post; 35K views on the promo post
Where: @maarcusadam ↗

Nine Vicious wearing the green grillz — Nine Vicious in the green grillz · Photo by Hana

00 · Where they started

A jeweler, an artist and one set of grillz.

Marcus Adam (@maarcusadam) is a private jeweler who makes custom grillz for artists. He wanted his work in front of more of the right people.

Nine Vicious is a rapper from Georgia who was signed to Young Thug's YSL Records. Pitchfork has compared his early work to Young Thug and Ken Carson.

My job was to photograph Nine wearing the green set and build the promotion around that photo.

The piece · Product photos of the grillz, not taken by me

Brief · Rules I set myself

Four rules before the shoot.

The grillz are the subject

The photo has to show the piece clearly, even when the person wearing it is well known.

The right person wears it

A good photo of the right person wearing the piece shows it better than a product shot.

Shoot for the promotion

The photo had to work as a post, since the promotion would be built around it.

Credit the maker

Marcus made the grillz. The work should lead people back to him.

The calls · Decision by decision

What I decided, and why.

01 · Subject

The piece, on the artist.

The call: I photographed Nine Vicious wearing the grillz instead of shooting them on their own.
Why: Marcus makes grillz for artists. Seeing them on an artist shows people what they look like worn, and who they are made for.

02 · Focus

One set, the green one.

The call: The whole shoot centered on a single set of grillz.
Why: Keeping to one piece gave the posts one clear thing to look at and talk about.

03 · Promotion

Built around the photo.

The call: After the shoot I handled the marketing and promotion, with my photo of Nine at the center of it.
Why: For a custom jeweler, visibility is how new clients find him. A well-known artist wearing the piece was the strongest thing we had to show.

Results · What happened

His most-liked post, and then some.

His post became the most-liked on his page.

6Klikes on his post

389reposts on his post

355saves on his post

The promo post made the discovery page.

35Kviews on the promo post

4,116reposts on the promo post

635shares on the promo post

Then fans started using my photo of Nine as their profile picture on X and other platforms, which I didn't expect. For a custom jeweler, that kind of visibility helps new clients find him.

The short version

Have something people should see? Let's get it in front of them.

This works without a celebrity too. An artist, a founder or a small business can get the same result when the photos match what they're building.

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