Behind The Lens: Nick Nogueira

Although mostly recognized for his sports photography, Nick Nogueira has a breathtaking portrait portfolio that many alike can appreciate. The 25-year-old found a love for the craft during his senior year of high school, which continued into his higher education. Being from Boston, sports played a huge impact on the city as well as his life, thus Nick Nogueira found a niche that worked for him. It led to collaborative work with MLB and ESPN amongst a plethora of athletes across the league.

On his shift to portrait photography, he shared, “What sparked my transition into working with other creatives was spending a lot of time at a radio station in Boston and photographing a good amount of some of the biggest names in hip-hop.” He continues, “After doing that for a little while I really started to enjoy working with music artists.” Nick has an insane catalog that ranges from athletes and musicians to powerful shots featured across media.

For our latest installment of Behind The Lens, Nick Nogueira tells about his Boston upbringing, shifting from sports to portrait photography, and career highlights to name a few! Read our interview with him below.

How big a role did photography play in your life being from Boston? When did you start taking photographs?

With Boston being such a historic city for sports, It really inspired me to jump right into the sports photography scene at a young age. It’s truly an amazing feeling to be able to freeze time with my camera and capture timeless photos that the average person would never get to experience unless they are looking at the photo.

I started taking photos my senior year of high school in 2014 which led to me attending a prestigious photography school from September of 2014 until June of 2015.

When did your passion for photography become your career? Take us back to when it all started and how it felt in that moment.

My passion for photography became my career on June 25^th, 2015 which is the day I graduated from photography school. On that day I received an award for Outstanding Portfolio Imagery and graduated 2nd in my class. At that exact moment, I knew I was born to do this. The next day I started an internship with a photographer who worked for clients such as ESPN and MLB. I hit the ground running and haven’t looked back since!

For a while, you mainly shot in the sports realm—what sparked your transition into doing work with other creatives?

I love shooting sports but I always wanted to make sure my portfolio was as diverse as it could be. I like to perfect a genre of photography and then try out the next! I think that has really shaped me into the photographer I am today.

What sparked my transition into working with other creatives was spending a lot of time at a radio station in Boston and photographing a good amount of some of the biggest names in hip-hop, after doing that for a little while I really started to enjoy working with music artists.

You’ve done some quite powerful portraits in the past—what’s your working process like? How do you make the moment happen where they seem true-to-self and real?

Thank you man I really appreciate that!. To be honest that is my main goal with every photoshoot I do.

My working process is usually starting off with a conversation with my subject, I watch them a lot and I can usually sense when they have fully opened up to me and are feeling comfortable. At that moment I know I will be able to get some amazing portraits.

Personally, what type of impact do you want to leave on people through your work?

I would say I hope to have a positive impact on other photographers and creatives during the present and future. I truly hope that my style of photography can become very recognizable to the point where if you see a photo you’ll be able to tell right away that it was shot by me. I think that would be so cool!

What’s been the biggest highlight in your career so far?

The biggest highlight of my career so far is when I had my photos of Joyner Lucas on the two biggest billboards in Times Square at the same time. As a creative, having your photo on a billboard is a huge deal so it was indescribable to see it all over Times Square for millions of people to see!

If you could give one piece of advice to a new photographer that was interested in shooting portraits what would it be?

My one piece of advice I would give to another photographer wanting to shoot portraits would be to get to know your subject before you start photographing them. I guarantee that once they pen up and feel comfortable you’ll get some amazing images!