Shaping the Future at Rellis: A Creative Journey with Impact

At the heart of every groundbreaking project is a vision.

This vision came to life for me, the force behind D’Amico Studios, through my collaboration with Texas A&M for their legacy Rellis campus, sprawling over 23,000 acres. Partnering with the dynamic teams at Unlikely Story and The Inhabitants, I embarked on a mission not just to capture images, but to capture imagination.

My role? Working alongside Director JB Carlin and DP MacGregor crafting stills and photos for a composite-driven advertising campaign. Think big. DC Amtrak takeover, plus an intense brand film. See it for yourself here: Rellis Brand Film

In the thick of this vast project, my approach was to blend in with the environment. Slipping in and out of shots unnoticed yet effectively, I operated with an awareness that ensured a minimal footprint, thereby magnifying the impact of our work, sometimes picking off shots from the DP’s cams and sometimes inspiring the DP from a still frame on my Sony. This creative balance allowed me to capture moments of raw power and breathtaking innovation without disturbing the organic unfolding in the blink of an eye.

The task was immense but invigorating. I photographed tomorrow happening today. I saw towering bridge columns crumble through an accelerated osmosis process, designed to expedite corrosion and prevent future damage. I shot emergency response specialists training to extract wounded and stranded from natural disasters. I  embedded myself and camera with firefighters fight flames bigger than apartment complexes. I captured images in the split seconds before a truck combusted,  the milliseconds before, and after, a 70+ mph truck came to a stop, I saw freaking lasers. 

Working closely with an exceptional team, I brought Rellis’ ethos of discovery to life through visual narratives that bridged technology and tradition, shaping the leaders of tomorrow.

In 2023, I shot this campaign. The canvas? The real world. The colors? Real stories. The result? Images that don't just speak, but shout. Shout about innovation, about progress, about a better today. Check out our work in action: Unlikely Story's Rellis Project.

Why does this matter? Because in today’s world, authenticity reigns supreme.  At D’Amico Studios, we're not just photographers or designers; we're innovators. We don't just capture moments; we capture movements. We're the Swiss Army knife of creativity – versatile, adaptive, ready.

As we relaunch and reinvent our studio, my promise remains unwavering: to help you translate visions into visual legacies. D’Amico Studios is here to make the unseen seen, the unheard heard.

Beyond a passion for technology and boundary-pushing image capturing lies a deeper purpose: the chance to document what truly matters, transforming today for the better. It’s in the confluence of creativity and positive societal impact where I find my greatest fulfillment.

For those seeking to immortalize their vision, to narrate their story through the lens of innovation and unmatched creativity, I extend an invitation to explore what we can achieve together.

Questions? Ideas? Visions? Let’s talk. Your next breakthrough could be a click away.

TRUTH IS CHANGING. HANG ON TIGHT.

Designing an experiential, augmented reality exhibit taught me how relative “truth” is.

I started my commercial advertising career as a photojournalist with fine arts training. That training taught me that every photograph deceives us, just a bit.

We think a photograph is recorded truth, but ultimately, it’s a selective interpretation. Sometimes, the photographer's fiction conveys more truth than reality itself. For some photographers, this wonderful moment is the nexus of our art’s power. A springboard for our search for meaning.

It also makes for great ads

The best visual advertising creatively manipulates photography’s subversive quality. But as consumers have become more sophisticated, and deep fakes have become a cultural phenomenon, the line between what’s true and what’s not is wavering.

And yet, expressing the truth has always been at the forefront of my strategic approach to brand building. So where does that leave me? Where does it leave everyone else who seeks to create art that is commercial, but also transformative?

It can get complicated

Much of my non-commercial work explores shifting definitions, slippery slopes and complex ideas. My work in photojournalism touched the same territory. So I’ve come to realize that truth is an even more fluid concept than I ever thought. It shifts with context.

Let’s start with changing reality.

Not long ago, we pointed a camera phone at a cereal box, followed a QR code and experienced a 3-dimensional object in register with the box. AR was a parlor trick that mixed reality.

Then the mixing got more sophisticated. My work in experiential art began with startup that pioneered projection mapping. It helped fashion both a new art form and new way to engage brand loyalty. Along the way, I collected six patents.

Welcome to the Vortex of Truth

After seeing my work at Klip Collective, New York City's digital art collective CADAF (https://www.cadaf.art) invited me to join their exposition. My AR collaborator Howard McCabe of Dream Syndicate and his team of developers and artists joined me.

The Vortex Of Truth began with both old-fashion pencil sketches and an AR Instagram filter that I invented. They showed six busts on pedestals of historical figures who spanned the entire history of human knowledge. Gandhi, Buddha, Maya Angelou, Aristotle, Confucius, and MLK Jr. each offered up their vision of what truth is. Recognizing that young people learn digitally and differently, we used great music and vibrant color to keep the experience short–two to four minutes–but technologically fascinating.

Viewers got the message quickly

Exploring the mixed reality, confronted by the different quotes, visitors soon understood that truth is relative, and never black and white. Vortex of Truth created buzz in Manhattan, and we launched a similar experience in Paris in 2020. We hoped to inspire our hundreds of visitors to question their media outlets, political figures and teachers. To dive deep and question every proclaimed truth.

What’s truth now?

Today, our mature media landscape grapples with defining truth. The erosion of verifiable truth has also polarized our politics. It has bred mistrust and disillusionment toward government and society on an unprecedented scale. Is this at least partially, a byproduct of modern 20th-century advertising. One that has often treated the distortion of opinion and truth as a handy strategic pillar?

Easy answers aren’t coming soon.

We all know that communication advancements often have unintended consequences. When the printing press disseminated the first books, more women were burned as witches. In the contemporary landscape, entities like Russian troll farms exploit social media to propagate falsehoods, and fracture societies in the process.

No magic bullet will stop this. Instead, we all need to embrace the responsibility of deciphering truth and challenging presented narratives.

A call to all artists

It’s an artist's duty to infuse authenticity into everything we create. But those of us who synthesize art and technology to create brand stories have an even heftier responsibility to weave truth into everything we do.

First let’s remember the obvious: People know when they’re being sold. In this digital age, they decode messages with a healthy dose of cynicism. They scrutinize every morsel of brand information. So, we need to be transparent about every brand detail. When consumers ask us what’s true, we should respond authentically. When the brand’s truth evolves, we need to evolve with it.

Unbranded truth is also powerful

Brands can also harness the power of truth by dropping their branding from some content. My team and I have often convinced big brands to fund technologically masterful but expensive projection installations without brand messages. Not a word. Our clients realized that in the end, their sponsor status added unique value and stimulated real engagement.

Consider the kaleidoscope

I’d also like to offer a different way to describe the search for truth.

Following the North Star is a well-worn model. But perhaps truth is not a fixed entity like a star but more like a kaleidoscope, ever changing. Truth is not a flickering thing, far away. Truth is in your hands, its perspective perpetually shifting. When you jostle the kaleidoscope to show it to someone else, the view can change again, so no two people ever see the same truth.

Nevertheless, we should still be looking for it together.

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