For a major software company, we were commissioned to create a library of images that could live across future advertising campaigns and also be used on their website.
We wanted images that felt modern, human, and unmistakably familiar.
What mattered most to us was not spectacle, but clarity. We wanted every frame to feel intentional, approachable, and emotionally honest.
The project was built around archetypes: the quiet professional, the focused thinker, the optimistic collaborator, the person you feel you have met before. These were not meant to be exaggerated characters. They were meant to feel real. The kind of people we encounter every day but rarely stop to truly see.
We approached the work with restraint. Each image was composed with clean architectural framing, simplified environments, and carefully controlled colour relationships designed to support the subject rather than compete with it. We removed anything that felt unnecessary, such as props, furniture, and distractions, until what remained was essential. The goal was to create images that were easy to read emotionally, where expression and posture carried as much weight as the environment itself.
The colour palette was equally deliberate. Natural tones, balanced warmth, and subtle harmony allowed the viewer’s attention to remain on the character. Nothing was allowed to feel visually dissonant. Every wardrobe choice, every wall colour, and every practical light inside the frame was selected to create cohesion and calm.
The production itself moved at an intense pace. In a Los Angeles studio, every set was designed and constructed in a single day. During that same window, we sculpted the lighting for each environment while simultaneously finalising wardrobe, grooming, and character direction for the actors. Over the following two days, we captured both still photography and motion assets across the entire campaign.
What emerged from the process was a collection of portraits that feel grounded, cinematic, and deeply human. In an era where advertising often competes for attention through noise and excess, we wanted to create something quieter: images that invite the viewer in instead of demanding their attention.
At its core, the project was about recognition. Not celebrity. Not aspiration. Recognition. The feeling of seeing someone on the page and thinking, “I know that person.”
About Kremer Johnson
Kremer Johnson is the Los Angeles-based photography duo of Neil Kremer and Cory Johnson, whose cinematic, narrative-driven imagery has made them one of the most recognizable creative teams in commercial photography today.
Both came to photography later in life, after successful careers in other industries unexpectedly came to an end. Kremer, originally from Rochester, New York, discovered photography after leaving a sales career in the sporting goods industry. Johnson, a native of Keokuk, Iowa, transitioned from film production after his company collapsed following an independent feature film. What began as two friends experimenting with cameras quickly evolved into a shared obsession with visual storytelling.
Drawing from years of business experience, Kremer and Johnson approached photography with a strategic mindset, building a brand around bold colour, expressive characters, and cinematic lighting. Their work blends humour, emotion, and narrative into single-frame stories that resonate with both audiences and advertisers.
Today, Kremer Johnson creates award-winning campaigns for major brands including Visa, Chevrolet, Ford, Hulu, CBS, Hormel, Braun, and Bulletproof Coffee. Their photography has earned recognition from American Photography, Communication Arts, IPA, Lürzer’s Archive, and the International Center of Photography, where their personal project Craigslist Encounters was exhibited.
Personal work remains central to their creative philosophy. Rather than separating commercial and artistic pursuits, they use self-initiated projects to experiment, evolve, and push their visual language forward. Their collaborative process thrives on contrast, with equal parts shared vision and creative friction, which they believe is essential to making compelling work.
At the heart of Kremer Johnson is the belief that every image should tell a story, reveal character, and leave the viewer feeling as though they have walked into a larger moment already unfolding. [Official Website]
