Today we’d like to introduce you to Vincent Roazzi Jr.
Hi Vincent, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am an event, travel, commercial, and wedding photographer and videographer based in Austin which is the first place I’ve called home for a long time. I got started doing street photography in New York City with my best friend. I would do it as a hobby outside of my sales job with a little point-and-shoot camera I bought online. I never thought it would lead me to doing photography as career that would be a hilarious thought because it was such an unattainable dream job. I was in my 20’s and at that time I would do anything to go to a free concert. Sofar Sounds NYC had just launched which was a secret concert series from London that I was not cools enough to be a part of.
One day, I saw on their Facebook that they needed a photographer to fill in, and I thought, ‘let me just send them a message and see if they respond even though I don’t have a professional camera.’ They said yes to me shooting, and I freaked out a bit because I had two days to find a professional camera and learn how to use it. My cousin let me borrow hers and I spent the entire day on YouTube learning what the different buttons on the camera were. I went to the secret concert, which was on a rooftop in New York, in a place where I had never been before. It was so cool, and I felt very uncool, or kind of cool at least because I was holding a camera! I shot it, edited it, and got the photos to them as quickly as possible. They soon replied saying they loved the photos and asked if I would be their resident photographer.
Again, I freaked out. I couldn’t believe that not only did I fake being a photographer but I had these amazing free concerts to attend and photograph. I did it every month, and it was the best experience for someone just starting out in photography. Two years later, I had moved to Miami working for a tech company as an account manager. In my spare time, I decided I would launch the Miami Chapter of Sofar Sounds. I put some random people together, who today are very talented filmmakers and audio engineers, to help me launch the show. That’s when I learned video. Music again gave me another amazing experience and I felt like I had a second life outside of my office job. Coworkers would even come up to me asking about the show and if I could invite them, and I would act all cool and like yeah, yeah, I’ll get you in! Meanwhile, I would scout bands and do all the bookings on the company’s computer. After six months, of putting all my energy into launching these concerts, I get a call from my same friend in New York.
He had been traveling in Asia for a year and would be launching a travel company called MyBhutan. He said over a bad Skype connection, “I got you a one-year visa to live here and help launch the company with me. You’ll do all the photography. But you have to be here in two weeks otherwise the government might not honor the visa.” That was the biggest turning point of my life. It was a shift in everything, both my personal life and my career. I talked to my parents first who supported me and said this is this opportunity of a lifetime. I gave my two week notice to my boss who thought I was crazy and didn’t even know what country it was. I told my friends at Sofar to take over for me, indefinitely. I booked my flights which would take me two days across the world and to this remote country where I would live. It was an entire year of unique living, traveling, and cultural experiences while holding a camera the entire time. That’s when I officially became a photographer and since then I’ve been working as an event, travel, commercial, and wedding photographer and videographer anywhere in the world.
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?
For me, it’s always been a smooth road, but from the outside looking in it probably seems like an enormous struggle. I slept on a couch for the first six months. I slept on even more couches after that when I was traveling to other cities for work. It never felt like a struggle to me because I was so excited and passionate about what I was doing. But if someone else said to me, ‘do you want this job where you’re going to have to eat pizza and sleep on a couch for the first year?’ I don’t think it would matter what job it was that doesn’t sound like a good trade. But it has always been smooth. And I’m always grateful because I never forget what it was like to work in an office every day for many years thinking to myself, “I’m not living up to my potential. I’m not being challenged. I can do better. I can be more creative.”
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I mostly photograph and make videos of events, weddings, and travel. What all these have in common, and what I’m best at, is photographing people. For example, getting up at 5am for a sunrise photo of a landscape is a horrible idea to me. I do it, because I have to sometimes, but I hate it. Getting up at 5am for a religious ceremony or for a festival or any life event where I can engage with people or culture is an incredible idea. I love that. I’m definitely waking up for that! All my work, whether it’s travel, weddings, or commercial work is event-based. I look for organized occasions because they deliver a compact showcase of people, their culture, history, story, personalities, colors, food, and dress are all made available and approachable. I’m most proud of my travel work because I’m only photographing for me. Whatever I feel like taking a photo of, I take a photo of, and that’s how I started as a photographer doing street photography. There are more stories in those images, even if I’m the only person that knows it. What sets me apart from others is hard for me to say, because I don’t want to toot my own horn and then I’d probably be wrong.
But what would probably set me apart, is that because I’m so passionate about people and getting to know them then it probably comes through my work more than it comes through with someone who loves photographing a landscape for example. The camera to me is kind of a license to get to know people, ask questions, experience and engage with strangers and connect. The more I do that, the more I understand about my own world, and the better images I create.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
Tony Robbins! Even though my girlfriend hates his voice I’ve found him to deliver the most consistent information that I like to hear. Besides that, the best resource for me as a photographer and videographer has always been obsessively analyzing and dissecting the works of those I admire. I like to keep three people who I want to be as a photographer and videographer in my sights at all times and then dissect the hell out of their work. And when I say dissect, I mean study one piece of content I don’t understand 100 times over until I can create it myself and that might take years. There is plenty of content out there to be blinded and misguided by but I find as long as I keep my focus on my favorites, I can become part of the club one day.
Contact Info:
- Email: vincent@vincentroazzijr.com
- Website: www.vincentroazzijr.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vincehashtagvince/
Image Credits
Alice C Cheung Photography, Chie Endo Photography, Michael Marquand and Mediamax Pictures
