Sitting slumped on a wooden Starbucks chair, she browses the Internet searching for inspiration.
Her short curly locks are gelled back into a tight ponytail. She’s dressed in cropped denim shorts, an ebony Lorde t-shirt and her signature white Chuck Taylors.
The coffee addict grabs her white iPhone 5S and opens the camera application. Positioning her subject, an iced venti caramel macchiato, she snaps a photo of her expensive coffee.
While most of Instagram is cluttered with #food, #ootd and #drink posts, Roxana Moure’s photos stand out among the cluster of photos posted by want-to-be photographers.
“This is just the way I like to show people how I see my day,” says the 20-year-old, “through a camera lens.”
She’s always enjoyed taking pictures, she says. Her iPhone 4s was the start to her photography career.
She began working at Soul Echo Studios, a photography company, as studio manager last August. Her Friday and Saturday nights are spent dressed in black assisting the head photographer at weddings. Though she enjoys the job, she cannot imagine herself photographing weddings the rest of her life, she admits.
Moure was undecided about her future. When she first began at Florida International University, she was an English major. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with the English degree but she knew writing was something she enjoyed, she says.
It wasn’t until last November in all the madness of the Paramore concert that Moure decided she wanted to make a career out of concert photography.
She remembers standing in the pit of their “Self-Titled” tour and enduring the pushes and screams of ecstatic fans.
As the show was starting, a woman standing on a stool obstructed the Paramore fanatic’s view. Moure observed the woman and noticed that strapped to the woman’s waist, were two SLRs and around her neck was a show photo pass.
“Wow! That’s actually a job? People do this as a living?” she remembers thinking
Once the concert was over, Moure befriended the photographer and exchanged information. This could be useful one day, she recalls.
Moure dedicated her time to perfect the pictures she took and posted them on to her Instagram profile. The quality of the photos and skill in editing soon became noticed. The number of followers she had and likes on her photos rapidly increased.
“At first, I posted the pictures on Instagram for my own personal enjoyment but I soon realized other people actually liked them, too,” she says.
The positive responds she received motivated her to post more of her work.
In Dec. 2013, a month after the Paramore concert, Moure invested in her first camera—a Canon T3I.
“I don’t like using the word photographer because now anyone with an iPhone and Instagram profile is a so called photographer,” Moure says.
Three months later, Moure’s good friend, Lindsey, bought a pair of tickets to Parahoy, a three-day cruise in the Carribbean with Parmore. Moure’s trip was spent standing in the front row of each show capturing in detail the vibe the performers were giving.
“Every time I had WIFI, I would transfer the photos I took to my laptop and posted them onto Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I wanted to show everyone exactly what was happening,” Moure recalls.
Moure’s photos were a hit. Paramore fans from all over the world were going onto her social media profiles to look at her work. In fact, her photos became so popular that the editors of Kerrang!, a popular UK-based magazine devoted to rock music, contacted her to use the photos for an article they were doing on Parahoy.
“I was so happy. Every photographers dream is for their photos to get published. I didn’t think this opportunity would come so early in my career,” raves Moure.
Soon after her photo was published, Moure debuted her self-designed website. She posted photos of the concerts she attended and made the option to purchase them. Posters were sold for $13 and small prints for $5. Her sales increased as the word spread.
“So many people on Twitter were asking me for prints that I thought it would be a good idea to sell them; it became a fun little business,” Moure admits.
Moure’s photos blasted through Twitter and Tumblr. With so many reposts, her photo made its way to Haley Williams’, Paramore’s lead singer, timeline and dashboard. Impressed by Moure’s work, Williams reposted and commented on the photo.
“She’s someone I look up to. The fact that she saw my pictures and said they were great was really rad,” the die-hard Paramore fan gushes.
Moure’s success didn’t stop there.
Soon after her photo was reposted for William’s 3.9 million followers to see, Moure, with the help of the photographer she befriended at the Paramore concert, was asked to photograph the concerts for Candy Hearts, Driver Friendly, Seaway, Stickup Kid and the most recent one, Charli XCX.
“Each of these opportunities has reminded me of how much I love doing this. I’ve had the chance to meet so many amazing people along the way, too,” marvels Moure.
One of the best moments, Moure admits, was in November of last year. She met with Charli XCX’s drummer, Deborah Knox-Hewson, for a private photo shoot before the concert at the Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale.
Not only did she get to assist the photo shoot and photograph the concert up close, she also had the chance to chat with the drummer.
“It was definitely surreal, she spoke a lot about dreams and ambition and how if you truly work hard you can make it in the industry. It was really inspiring,” exclaims Moure.
Moure has plans to contact more musicians and continue thriving on the current success she’s experiencing. She looks forward to her promising future and the new endeavors it may bring.
“There are two things I love, photography and music,” the digital media student says. “There is just something so great about combining those two things together. I love capturing how the audience and artist interact with one another. It’s pure magic. If I can do that the rest of my life, I’d be so thrilled.”
For “Moure” Roxy , visit her website and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it ! Roxy truly is a wonderful human being and I’m blessed to call her my friend.
Have a wonderful Friday!
x,
( all photos taken by Roxy Moure)
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