Cory is a still life photographer based in New York, specialized in food, product and interior/decor.
How you got into advertising?
I started out shooting anything I could get hired to shoot. In the early days of the career that included weddings and I even still used film. Eventually, I found that taking pictures of people really wasn’t my thing. Not that I couldn’t do it but I didn’t enjoy it. Advertising photography seemed to be the pinnacle achievement one could aspire to, especially as a product photographer.
A run-down of the most recent campaign you worked on?
I had the pleasure of helping UberEats create social media content for their Europe, Middle East and African markets. I shot a series of 5 stop motion videos that we added sound effects and music to. Each one featured a food item being transformed from raw ingredients into a ready-to-be-delivered entree. We laid out the food in a knolling grid on a solid brand-colored background. After that we animated the stories across 80-90 frames for each video. It took 4 days to shoot and 4 weeks post to turn around all the assets (in addition to the 5 primary videos, I created multiple variations in different formats to generate around 10 assets per video).
The best piece of creative work around at the moment is?
The Budweiser packaging design done by Jones Knowles Ritchie.
The next big advertising trend is going to be?
Stepping away from paying huge social media influencers for product placement and moving towards smaller unique campaigns featuring a social responsibility angle.
The piece of advertising work you wish you had thought of is?
The recent Lego Campaign series called Imagine created by Ogilvy & Mather. It would have been cool to create the concept or shoot it.
Your favourite digital tool/app at the moment?
Being a photographer I would have to say my Hasselblad camera (H4D-200 Multi Shot)
In a film about your life, you’d like to be played by?
Ryan Reynolds. He is Canadian and funny as shit.
Your last social media update said?
Look at my work, haha.
Your dream collaboration is?
Dom Perignon
A piece of criticism you've received was?
I made the product look too perfect. The client moved away from CGI renderings and I lit the product so well they thought it looked too clean.
A great piece of advice you received?
“Low Overhead, Low Overhead, Low Overhead.” It was one of the first pieces of advise from the first photographer I ever assisted.
Twitter handle: @corydawson
Instagram: @corydawsonphoto
