Today we’d like to introduce you to Giovanni Mondragon Angeles
Hi Giovanni, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In all honesty, I didn’t want to be a photographer. I just had a camera at the time because I had a clothing brand and I had meet a rapper. I basically paid a rapper a couple hundred dollars to promote my clothing brand. I had a little camera where I took pictures of him repping the brand, posted them. I guess he liked the work and after that, I mean, I think that’s the beginning of when I started my photography. Eventually, I basically faked it where I was sneaking into concerts with my camera to take pictures. Just because I also wanted to see if I could meet the artist as well, but that was only for fun. Just to say that like I got booked by so-and-so artist or whatever and I guess eventually from there, You know how they saying “fake it till you make it, that’s what I was doing”. So, I remember I eventually bought a $3,000 camera not knowing how to use it, played with it, had fun, met a couple great people on the way. I was developing for myself and I realized that I like taking pictures. I had friends that are barbers and I started taking pictures of them.I’ll do it for free or I get paid $50 bucks and then after that, everything just became word of mouth. I just kind of started to learn to love photography in a way where it was fun. I was being able to capture people’s moments but not just that, living other people’s lives in a way where it didn’t feel like working a job which was like a nine-to-five and I was just kind of living a different day every day and I think that’s what I love the most other than, you know, of course taking the pictures and got me to where I am today and now I get booked by, venues, started making contracts with different locations as far as bars, not just bars, nightclubs and even outside of Austin, I want to be known, I want to be bigger and, you know, just in Texas in general but, you know, outside of Texas and sometimes I’ve been getting flown out to take pictures outside of Austin which would be Los Angeles, which would be Florida and more… the world keeps going and going and that’s kind of how I started my photography and to this day, I see myself as being one of the best and upcoming photographers but not just known for like my talent but love of passion I have for it because I just like making people feel good through a picture and me being apart of it to take it.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It wasn’t a smooth ride. I would say probably the hardest thing would be having to lie to my mom, especially when I worked at Target and I would skip some days at Target. I would obviously skip money to be made to at least make, you know, if I had car payments or whatever I had to pay off during that month or the next upcoming month. I, would prefer more the photography part to get that experience and exposure and learn as I go. And I guess the other part that was probably a little difficult was making the connections in person. I love talking to a lot of people, but sometimes when, you know, moments happen right then and there, I do tend to kind of, you know, get kind of quiet.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m known for being the photographer that does it all. And what I mean by that is I will take pictures of a wedding, by tomorrow you’ll see me take pictures at a rodeo, the following day you’ll see me take pictures at a club, nightclub. I’m known to be wanting to do it all. I find it kind of, at least for me, I don’t want to be stuck to doing just one thing over and over again. Not saying there’s anything wrong about that, but the fact is you make so much connections and I’m just so proud of myself to be able to do that and not having to say no to whatever it is for me to take pictures. Photography really makes me happy. It makes me happy for the ones that I’m capturing and having to see them smile, having to see a couple going through a runway, walkway, having to see someone get down on their knee to propose, engagements, having to see nightclubs, clubs being successful, and of course the moments where family, you know. Though I think I’m so proud of myself where I am today and what I do.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Something surprising that people don’t know about me are my turnarounds. I tend to have like pictures probably by the time that someone wakes up. Say if I took pictures of I don’t know like a nightclub you know it happened around you know 1 a.m by like 2-3 a.m the pictures are already done edited. So that I’m just really known to be having fast turnarounds. Sometimes when it’s you know you got to be quick I’ve learned when I was doing concerts back-to-back and artists back-to-back some of these artists and some of these venues want those pictures literally as soon as possible and I’ll get calls I’ll get texts by that next day.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://gioshothat.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gioinparis/profilecard/?igsh=ZXNneWNvcm9weWx6
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/giovanni.mondragon.756/
Image Credits
Social media influencers
@britney.official & @garik2offocial
Austin FC 2
@fuerzaregida
@yerimua
