Pauly Shore Invites Strangers Into His Mobile Sauna in Nashville (The Sauna King)
Working with BATHHOUSE: a behind-the-scenes look at one of my favorite shoots of the year.
Some shoots you plan for months. This one started with a text: "Pauly Shore wants to put strangers in a sauna. You in?"
Yes. Obviously yes.
The idea
BATHHOUSE is Nashville's mobile sauna: a wood-fired, Scandinavian-style sauna on wheels that shows up where the city is already gathering. The concept is simple and a little bit wild. You don't go to the sauna; the sauna comes to you. Strangers walk in, sit shoulder to shoulder, sweat it out, and walk out as people who've had an actual conversation.
For this campaign, BATHHOUSE handed the keys to Pauly Shore. The Sauna King. His job: pull people off the street, get them inside, and keep the room laughing. My job: make it look as good as it felt.
What I shot
I came on as photographer and video lead for the project, directing, shooting, and editing the piece. We wanted it to feel like a real night in Nashville, not a commercial: handheld energy, real reactions, real steam.
3 reels: a short, fast-cut video of Pauly recruiting strangers, holding court inside the sauna, and sending everyone back into the night glowing. Shot on location in Nashville.
The stills: a brand library for BATHHOUSE. Exterior shots of the sauna in the city, interior portraits in the heat, and the in-between moments that make people want to book.
The 11 min YT video content: DIRECTED by PAULY SHORE cutdowns and verticals built for Instagram and TikTok, so BATHHOUSE could keep the campaign running for weeks after the shoot.
Shooting inside a 180-degree box
A few things nobody tells you about photographing a sauna:
Your gear hates it. Lenses fog the second you step in. I kept a dry body outside the door and rotated, and shot the interiors in short bursts. I rented quite a bit of gear to pull off this shoot. But the BLACK MAGIC did fine, and if we could do it again, I’d bring the heavy equipment in.
Steam is light. The best frames came from backlighting the steam with a single hard source so every pour of water read on camera.
The talent does the heavy lifting. When your host is Pauly Shore, you don't direct. You keep up. I shot it like a documentary and let the comedy happen.
And did we hold a collab contest with Culture Club for a free fro-yo post sauna & cold plunge? Yes, of course. When Pauly Shore asks, you say alright, 2 minutes.
This is the work I love most: a brand with a real personality, a talent who can carry a room, and a creative team willing to make something people actually want to watch. BATHHOUSE didn't need a polished ad. They needed proof that their thing is fun, and that's what we made.
If you've got a product, a place, or a person people should know about, that's what I do. Brand photography, video, and creative direction, based in Nashville and working everywhere.
Katie Coffee is a Nashville brand and talent photographer and video maker. Her work has appeared in Allure and Forbes and on billboards across Tennessee. Clients include BATHHOUSE, Innovative Vascular Institute, Brasada Construction, Wigs by Tiffani, and Quore.
