A conversation from Chris Collins' YouTube video where Speaker B recounts transitioning from film to photography after attending film school in Nashville (2011), picking up stills while taking headshots, and being mentored by Nashville photographer Michael Gomez who gave him studio access. Speaker B’s first magazine assignment was shooting Taylor Swift for a German magazine (around 2015) while he was living in New York; Michael Gomez supported him during that shoot. Themes include mentorship, ‘serving people’, balancing professional skill with kindness, and persistent nerves before shoots that vanish when looking through the viewfinder.
Questions this video answers
2011
Shooting Taylor Swift for a German magazine (around 2015).
New York
Chapters
So what happens to you at 18 or 19 after this?
How does it change your relationship with the camera?
So at that point, I was really making films, so I was at film school. So my main camera was like the video camera and not the still camera. I went to film school, and then I came to the U.S. still, like, in film school, I went to Nashville to study film. So that was 2011. And then in Nashville, I picked up a still camera because I took headshots of my girlfriend, and her agent was good friends with the photographer, who was like, oh, man, you need to do more of this. You got it. You're good at this. So I went to this guy's studio, but he wasn't shooting in there. He was painting. He was just painting the studio. And he was like, here's a brush. Just paint. So I helped him paint for a day, and after the day, he was like, here's the key to the studio. You can use it whenever you want. So, you know, that's sort of like when I started Michael Gomez, he's the guy that put the paintbrush in my hand. And what he said was like, you gotta serve people.
Sometimes in your career.
And I guess his point was that by being willing to help him paint, he was, you know, he was willing to share the studio with me, and he had a tremendous impact. When I got my first assignment, funnily enough, my first assignment for a magazine was shooting Taylor Swift. It was for a German magazine. I think it was like 2015, I think when it was, I was living in New York, and Taylor Swift is, like, huge in the US but sort of coming up in Europe. So I hired an assistant in Nashville and I fly over. I get to Nashville airport, and the assistant's there, but Michael Gomez is there also. So I was like, what are you doing here, man? He's like, I'm not going to let you this up, so I'm going to make sure you nail it. So he was like, basically, back up all day for me. Just, you know, in case you need anything, I'm right out here. The door, outside the door. Whatever you need.
Were you nervous?
Yeah, I was nervous a little bit.
You were?
I'm always nervous for every shoot.
Really?
Yeah. Why? I don't know.
I made peace with it. I'm fine with it. I'm nervous.
Like it's healthy.
Yeah. It's not like a crippling anxiety or anything like that. It's sort of like rising to the.
Occasion and not underestimating.
Yes.
Every opportunity.
Yeah, every time. Even if Somebody gives me an iPhone, like, hey, take a picture of this group. I'm like. But then as soon as I look to the.
You know what I do?
I take a picture of myself.
That's the way. There you go. See it? Yeah, yeah. No, it's just a thing. But when I look to the viewfinder, like, it's gone. The anxiety, then it gets. It gets replaced with a choi. Every time. I love. Just still love photography. Every day. Every. Every day I get to do it.
I mean, that's a pretty selfless thing for him to do, to show up there just to assist and. Yeah, just make sure that you were okay.
Exactly. Yeah. I don't even know how he found out about it. It's just like, well, no, I noticed the assistant. You know, it was like a seat in Nashville. Everybody kind of knew each other and helped each other out, but he was. I will never forget. I was, like, unheard of. Nobody else that I. I work with would do that, you know, And I will. You know, he's. If I had. If I had, like, mentors who were, like, big photographers, and Michael Gomez is, like, a great. You know, a great Nashville photographer. He does good stuff, but he's in no way, like, one of the world's leading photographers. But still, like, working with him was so much more instructive than anything else, because the higher you go, the more ego you meet and you kind of see, like, I don't know if I want to be like that. I don't know if I feel like that's a good person or if I want to conduct my business in that way. And Michael, just, like his human side, I think, was very important to me at that age, to learn from him that way.
Yeah. And maybe the lesson is you can be both. Right. You can be really good at your craft and also care about people.
Exactly.
You don't have to compromise.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Maybe that's what he stands for.
I think so.
As an example.
I think so. Yeah. Yeah. And I try to kind of, you know, be the same way, you know, be helpful to young photographers, be open, answer questions, you know, come on set. You know, I try to just, you know, continue the message that he instilled.
