We were lucky to catch up with Corey + Emily Critser recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Corey + Emily, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

We were dying laughing the first time we consciously used AI (Artificial Intelligence) features on Photoshop in December 2020. We were playing around with photos we took of our 1-year-old on the beach, turning him into an old man, giving him a full set of adult teeth, and opening his eyes wider with the neural filters in Photoshop. It was shocking and hilarious. Last night, February 2024, we were on AI generative program Midjourney exploring hard-hitting imagery such as “Dogs working at jobs,” “Alexander the Great,” “Santa on a pirate ship flying in the clouds.” For those new to Midjourney, it’s a program that looks like Facebook meets a chat room. You type in a prompt like “Robots made of gummy worms – on a beach – photorealistic.” In about 30 seconds Midjourney will respond with 4 images of your prompt. You can enhance, change, and download the images.
The incredible photo-realism will blow your mind. Most people have seen or played with creating AI imagery. A few months ago, the imagery created was interesting but bizarre. Eyes were wonky or looked like they were melting, arms and fingers were too long and dismorphic. The longer you looked at the images, the more you realized how wrong and creepy they were. Today, AI generative images are truly incredible. There are still aspects that are not quote right and there is a learning curve of how to properly prompt AI to get what you’re looking for. For example, “Two people sharing a drink” could end up with two people drinking a monstrous same drink, two people merged as one person as a drink, or other strange ends.

We are a husband and wife advertising photographer team based in Tennessee. We met in film school at Savannah College of Art and Design. We worked in the film and photo industry in Los Angeles, spent 100-days camping in and photographing 40 national and state parks before moving to Tennessee and starting our company. Since then, we have run our own studio working with national brands around the US and have a photo agent out of Dallas, Texas.

The emerging AI generative tools are going to rock the film and photo industry in a way we haven’t seen before. It’s going to impact anyone with a screen whether they realize it or not.

We are in a moment in history where AI is beginning to emerge into our everyday lives and we are among the first professional photographers to utilize this technology. We see this as a tool, not a threat. As AI has integrated into our industry, we have used it as a tool to expand or generate backgrounds, concept ideas, increase speed of our workflow, and as a tool for creative exploration. It’s important to consistently ask ourselves, “How can we use this?”

As for the future of AI generative imagery, AI tools, and the impact it will have on the commercial photography industry, only time will tell. Some people believe it to be the end. Others believe AI generative imagery was an inevitable, beautiful recycling of the trillions of images we have created in the digital age so far. What do we think? As commercial photographers, we believe in a perspectivist view, because we have seen this industry uprooted by new technology before and still it perseveres. The reality is that this new medium is here and we might as well dive in and figure out how to use it to our advantage rather than cast it aside as witchcraft and become left behind.

Corey + Emily, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

After film school at SCAD, 3 years of long distance, freelancing in Los Angeles, a 100-day road trip around America camping and photographing in 40 national and state parks, we decided to start a commercial photography business in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

We are Corey + Emily, a husband/wife advertising photography team. Lanewood Studio is our studio and production company we run. We collaborate with advertising agencies and marketing teams to create their content.

I would say the three major things that set us apart from others in our industry are location, integrity, and our steadfastness in adapting to new technologies. Most creatives flock to major cities because they are told that’s the only way to succeed. We’ve found living in a mid-size city, we’ve had countless opportunities to try, grow, and succeed. People, businesses, and government entities have encouraged us with open arms asking us, “What can we do for you?” We pride ourselves on our integrity in making sure everything we do is honest and with our full heart. We turn down jobs often because when we do take on work, we put 100% into making the best quality work we can. Adapting to new technologies is a postmark of if modern day photographers will sink or swim. We constantly ask ourselves with curiousity, how can we use this to enhance our work.

I am very proud of the collaborative environment we try to create on shoots. Vibes are everything. On a typical shoot with us in studio, our dog Scout greets you at the door, chill vibes music plays, the images come in on screens around the space as we shoot, we listen to feedback, and make sure everyone is seen and heard. I can’t explain it, but energy on a set can make or break creative content.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

One of my favorite places to camp is among the Redwood trees in Northern California. Redwoods are the tallest trees in the world and can live thousands of years. When forest fires happen, they are protected by their thick bark and actually use fire to open new burls (seeds). It’s always inspired me that one tree can grow taller than any other by strategy and playing the long game. They do not spend their energy and years spreading out wide, but instead spend their energy and years growing resilient and tall.

Many businesses scale by hiring staff, selling higher quantity, opening new locations, and generally spreading wider and wider.

With creatives like us, we do not grow by spreading wide. A famous painter for example cannot hire more painters to do their work. Creatives like us scale differently. We can grow to produce bigger, better work. We can grow by charging what we are worth and having the guts to tell a client what it would take to produce great, original work. We can grow by becoming resilient and paying attention to yearly patterns in your business. Sometimes work is packed, sometimes slow. Plan for your year, not your week. Be a Redwood.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

We often get the question, “What’s it like working with your spouse?” Life, love, creating, and business have more in common than not. They all require patience, understanding, dedication, endurance, and allowing room to grow.

Corey and I have worked together on small and large photoshoots and film sets, spent 3 years long distance Savannah, GA to Los Angeles, CA, lived out of a Subaru camping on a 100-day road trip around America, travelled the world, started a business, completely renovated a building to be our studio, our biggest challenge of raising 2 toddler boys, and much more.

What has gotten us through every hurdle? We love creating together. When you open yourself up to creating new everyday, you allow yourself room to grow, to let creativity in, and your life will expand in ways you might not expect. In our business we create imagery, we’ve created 2 wild boys, we create experiences every day with people we meet and things we learn.

Not everything in life, love, and business is sunshine and rainbows. There are peaks and valleys in every timeline. Doubt loves to find us in our darkest moments, but you need to ask yourself, “What is the constant in my life? What is it I love to do most and how can I do that every day?”

To answer your original question, Corey and I met in the oddly romantic student center in Savannah, Georgia at Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) in 2009 at a crew recruitment meeting. I will never forget the moment I shook Corey’s hand and looked in his eyes. It still gives me goosebumps to this day. We fell in love working on Corey’s thesis film. The rest is history.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://corey-emily.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_coreyandemily_/

Image Credits
We are photographers and shot our photos! <3 Would you like crew?