Dale May Photography, Fairfield, CT (2026)

Dale executes photography, direction, CGI, VFX, post-production and AI assisted workflows under one roof with one clear creative vision. DALE MAY: NEW YORK HYBRID PHOTOGRAPHER, DIRECTOR, & CGI/VFX ARTIST

Dale May doesn’t just make images, he builds worlds. Recognized by leading institutions including Lürzer’s Archive (200 Best Advertising Photographers & Digital Artists) and the International Photography Awards (2024 Special Photographer of the Year, Digitally Enhanced), his work spans still photography, motion, and cinematic CGI production. For over 30 years, Dale has been a distinctive voice in advertising, defined by one principle: the most powerful campaigns begin with a strong portrait and evolve into fully realized cinematic worlds. Every element: CGI, VFX, animation, and post-production - serves that story. His highly stylized, conceptual work includes talent such as Daniel Day-Lewis, Charlize Theron, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Elizabeth Banks, and campaigns for global brands across entertainment, consumer goods, pharma, and tech. Dale executes photography, direction, CGI, VFX, and post-production under one roof. This unified approach eliminates handoffs, accelerates production, and ensures the original vision carries through to final delivery, resulting in cohesive campaigns across all platforms. THE WORK

His hybrid methodology blends studio photography with photorealistic CGI, AI-assisted workflows, and integrated motion production. The result moves seamlessly between still campaigns, video, and narrative film—always anchored by portraiture. Projects like Starlight Falls Motel, a fully realized CGI environment, demonstrate a production system that removes traditional limitations - no location constraints, no weather issues, no compromises - while maintaining cinematic quality at any scale. BEYOND THE LENS

Dale holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design and is also a Sundance-selected director (2003). His work reflects a deep influence from cinema, storytelling, and visual world-building. Based in Connecticut, rooted in New York, available worldwide. WORKING WITH DALE

Dale collaborates directly with agencies, brands, and creative teams on projects ranging from single images to fully integrated campaigns, delivering one clear vision from concept through completion. AGENT: WSW CREATIVE

212.431.4480

George Watson / [email protected]

wswcreative.com

GALLERY: SAMUEL OWEN GALLERY

Lee Milazzo

203.422.6500

Greenwich CT | Nantucket | Palm Beach

samuelowen.com

10/01/2026

New work: The Pool House. A concept that didn't exist when the day started.

I came into that studio session with Clown Time Burger already finished in my head. I'd been carrying it around for weeks. We shot it, and that's the one that just won: 3rd Place Bronze, Digitally Enhanced, at the International Photography Awards 2026.

Then the day gave me something unexpected. Sometimes a model gives you a simple look, and in a single glance you know who she is, where she's standing, and what put her there. The whole world is sitting inside the expression. All I have to do is build it.

This is the part of the work I'll never get tired of. You plan everything you can. Then you stay open, because the frame you connect with usually shows up while you're busy making a different one.

3rd image is what the camera caught. The pool house is a real structure I photographed at a friend's house, with the boy inside. Marisa was shot separately in my Connecticut studio. The backyard, the pool, and her wardrobe were built with AI, doing the same job CGI does everywhere else in my work: building a world around people who were photographed.

One session. Two images. One I planned for weeks, one I never saw coming.

The Pool House is on my site, along with the full Clown Time Burger case study.

© Dale May
Agent: Wswcreative

08/05/2026

Three years running: Lürzer's Archive has named me one of the 200best Digital Artists 2026 (Edition 8). Four portfolio images will appear in the annual: Horse Whisperer, Inner Peace, The Accidental Tourist, and Clown Time Burger.

Inner Peace and The Accidental Tourist started as portraits I shot for Prevention Magazine in 2011. Fifteen years later, I returned to the original captures and rebuilt them from the ground up. New concepts, new environments, new light, built with my current photography, CGI, AI, and post-production workflow. The subjects held. The world around them evolved.

Horse Whisperer is Montana, shot in a Connecticut studio in the middle of winter. Molly Dryman had never sat in a saddle, and the horse she rode that day was a pillow rigged on a C-stand. The real ones were CGI, posed, lit, and rendered around her. Clown Time Burger is a restaurant that exists only in CGI, down to the neon, with AI working under direction. Marisa was lit with controlled studio sunlight and matched precisely into the scene.

The technology serves the image. It never authors it.
This selection comes alongside 200best Advertising Photographers 2025/26. Thank you to Molly and Marisa for carrying these worlds.

Lürzer's Archive Wswcreative
Photography, CGI, A.I. & Post: Dale May

06/18/2026

The performance comes first.

I put actor Phil Hyland on blue seamless, gave him room to play, and watched. No character locked in advance. You see who shows up in the capture: the face tells the story. Then I build the world to match.

That is where AI earns its place. Once the performance inspires the character, I create the environment that character lives in. A sunlit Tuscan garden. A New York street. A boat deck. A river at golden hour. The actor inspires the world. I use the tool to build it.

AI never directs the eyes or finds the moment. That is a real actor and a camera. AI is the tool. Never the author.

For casting directors, this is the shortcut to a yes. You stop guessing whether an actor fits a role and see him already in it. One session, several characters, every one a part he could walk into tomorrow.

Full-Spectrum Visual Artist. Every Layer. One Signature.

Photography & Post: Dale May
Agent: Wswcreative
Actor: Phil Hyland

04/30/2026

Takeout Tuesday meets AI-assisted VFX. 🥡👽�
This is what hybrid production looks like in 2026:

Live-action footage + selective AI integration + full creative control = broadcast-quality VFX at a fraction of traditional budget & timeline.

My closed production pipeline layers AI onto original photography and video capture, strategically, selectively, and only with client approval. Every final deliverable is ownable, copyrightable, and protected.

The distinction that matters in global advertising where IP, talent rights, and copyright cannot be compromised.

AI IS A TOOL. NEVER THE AUTHOR.

Photography | Photorealistic CGI | Commercial Video | VFX | Animation | Post-Production | AI-Assisted Workflows

When something needs to change mid-production, it changes. No handoffs.

FULL-SPECTRUM VISUAL ARTIST�
Every Layer. One Signature.

👉 Learn more about my AI production pipeline at the link in the comments.

Agent: Wswcreative

04/14/2026

The entire shoot was 6 minutes.

First frame to last, six minutes with Christina Aguilera for a global Shure microphone campaign. Specific brief, specific client needs, and a subject who knew exactly what she was doing.

These images have been sitting in my archive since 2006. I've been doing a deep rebuild of my website recently, with new case studies, new work, and a fresh look at everything, and revisiting old shoots is something I've always loved to do. Going back with different eyes and better tools is its own kind of creative work.

So I built a more narrative world around her.

The background environments were created in ComfyUI using Flux 2 Pro with perspective image guides and detailed prompts, then edited and composited with the original portraits in Photoshop. I wanted the space to feel personal. Not just a backdrop, but a place that says something about who she is. There's a vintage turntable. Tea on the coffee table. And a framed photograph of Etta James on the wall, her favorite singer.

The original studio captures are in the carousel. Swipe to see where it started.

Slide 1 — finished composite
Slide 2 — original studio capture
Slide 3 — finished composite
Slide 4 — original studio capture

04/09/2026

Five stars. Would not recommend the waterfall.

This is the Accidental Tourist. He started life as a background extra in a 2011 Prevention Magazine shoot and spent 14 years waiting in the outtakes for his real job.

The waterfall environment is an AI-assisted composite. The concept: a spec campaign for travel insurance. The headline: "Adventure finds everyone eventually."

Your next campaign might already be hiding in your archives.

Accidental Tourist appears in Lürzer's Archive Issue 232, out now. Also just found out I've been selected for 200 Best Digital Artists again this year. More on that soon.

Commissions through Wswcreative

Check out my updated portfolio at the link in comments.

Address

Fairfield, CT
10003

Website

http://www.dalemayphotography.com/

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