Director · Photographer · Editor · Producer — New York + Los Angeles
One Vision.
Every Frame.
I concept it, write it, direct it, shoot it, and cut it. Photo and motion for brands — one creative, no handoffs, no agency overhead.
Annual Content Partnerships
Your year-round creative department, without the department. Season-by-season photo and motion campaigns — concepted, directed, shot, and edited under one annual contract. It's the model Cotton Incorporated has renewed for 14 consecutive years.
Director-led, crewed per production — casting, styling, HMU, grip, and assistants drawn from a vetted national network, scaled to each shoot and billed at cost. One creative vision, full production horsepower.
See the 14-year case study →Brand Photography
National campaigns, seasonal lookbooks, and editorial for apparel, outdoor, and lifestyle brands. Shot on location or in studio — New York, Los Angeles, or wherever the story lives.
Direction & Motion
Directing and producing branded film — campaign spots, documentary series, and social-first video. The same eye behind the stills runs the motion set, so every frame matches.
Editing & Post
Series and campaign editing at production speed. For Hot Wheels' six-episode "Driving Design," footage uploaded overnight from sets in six countries — finished cuts delivered in days, from one editor.
FEATURED CASE STUDY — SELF-INITIATED
One Crazy Summer: An Overlanding Story
A self-initiated shoot through the Sierra, built to prove a point: product photography doesn't have to look like product photography. Gear from nine outdoor brands, shot in motion on a real overlanding route — camping, driving, breaking down, and getting back up — with a model, a small crew, and no client brief telling us what the shot "should" look like.
Stills and drone footage were captured in parallel, the same way a client shoot runs now — proof of the one-creative, photo-plus-motion model on a project built entirely on spec.
Six countries. Six automakers. Cut in days.
"Driving Design" pairs Hot Wheels designers with the design leads of Porsche, Lamborghini, McLaren, Ford, GM, and Nissan. Each episode shot in a different country; footage uploaded overnight, edits turned around while the crew traveled to the next set.
Director's reel — coming soon. Full series on the Hot Wheels Garage channel.
14 Years.
One Client.
Since 2012, Cotton Incorporated has trusted this studio as its year-round creative partner — under a continuous annual contract, renewed 14 consecutive times.
Every season: campaign concepts, scripts, location scouts, directed shoots in stills and motion, and every final edit — delivered by one creative, for the Blue Jeans Go Green program and beyond. No agency layers. No handoffs. One vision, sustained for over a decade.
If your organization needs a content partner who's still here next year — and the year after — this is the model.
Limited Edition Prints
Landscape work from two decades in the field — editions of 50, signed and numbered. Commercial licensing available.
INQUIRE FOR COLLECTION →
Workshops
Outdoor Landscape Workshop — Hudson Valley & West Coast dates. Product Photography for Small Brands — studio intensive.
LANDSCAPE $350 · PRODUCT $500
One creative.
Every frame.
Most brands assemble a photographer, a director, an editor, and a producer for every campaign — then spend the budget managing the handoffs. I'm all four.
Twenty years of commercial production, including 14 as Cotton Incorporated's annual creative partner and two working alongside Wes Anderson. Based in New York, working both coasts — and wherever the story is.
Let's Build Something.
Annual partnerships, campaigns, series, and everything in between. Tell me what you're making.
steve@stevemakowskistudio.com