I'm Joey. I shoot photo and video in Detroit.
Ten years, most of it by myself. When you hire Dream District, you get me on the call, me behind the camera, and me editing your files.
The story
How this got here
It started with a camera and more ambition than gear. Local artists, small events, whatever would have me. I learned on jobs I probably shouldn't have been trusted with yet.
Then I moved to Atlanta to grow the business. It didn't take the way I hoped. I learned more there in a year about running a business than I did in the five before it, and most of what I learned was what I'd been doing wrong.
So I came back to Detroit and rebuilt it here, where I know the city and the people in it. That turned out to be the whole point. The work got better when I stopped trying to be a studio somewhere else and started being a photographer somewhere specific.
Now I shoot for founders, small businesses, clothing and hair brands, and I keep a handful of artists stocked with content month to month.
The difference
The difference is direction
Anyone can show up with a camera. Most of a shoot going well happens before anyone picks one up.
I plan around what your business sells and where your audience actually is. I direct while we're rolling, so you're never standing there guessing what to do with your hands. Then I cut it for the place it's going, because a photo that works on a website and a clip that works on Reels are not the same file.
You're not booking a photographer for an hour. You're getting someone who cares whether the work does anything after you post it.
How I work
Four things worth knowing
One person, start to finish.
No account manager, no second shooter you've never met, no handoff. You talk to me and I show up.
You own every image.
Full usage rights. Your site, your ads, your socials, print. Crop them, run them for years. I don't come back to license you images you already paid for.
Photos back fast.
Headshots and team sessions in five business days. Brand sessions and campaign days inside a week.
You pick your images with me.
Not from a gallery link two weeks later. We sit down at the end of your session and choose them together, and I'll tell you why one frame works better than another.
Who I've shot for
“Joey was amazing. Very patient and instructing on poses. Overall amazing experience; would book again!”
If your online presence doesn't match how good you are at what you do, let's fix that.
Tell me what's coming up. I'll tell you what it takes.