53Views
Gibson Hazard is the 21-year-old creative making next level videos of rappers
Gibson Hazard is an extraterrestrial photographer and videographer making promotional tour content for ya wifey’s favorite rapper.
At the young age of 21, Hazard never thought that he’d be creating the fire video content for “Gucci Gang” rapper Lil Pump, but this is just the beginning of Hazard’s creative journey.
After Tommy John Surgery hindered his dream of playing college baseball, Hazard decided to launch his photographic career.
Funny thing is, he had no interest in photography at all. Hazard just took a high school course to get an easy A and get accepted into college. We’ve all been there before.
In fact, just like his interest in photography bloomed late in his senior year of high school, so did his love for music.
With a newfound love for underground melody, he combined his one-track mentality to succeed with photography and music, taking pictures of artists at concerts he attended.
In a Purpose of the Youth podcast, Hazard explained how he got himself into shows to fulfill his photo class’ requirements. This strategy would define his career. He explained,
“At the very beginning, I was like a nobody. I had never done anything and I was trying to get a photo pass to these shows. The way you do it, basically, is like you email the openers. For every headliner, there are lots of openers. Like two or three to four openers… A lot of times the first opener is a no name that has zero fans, no one cares about them, and they have no content too which is the issue…”
He added,
“If anyone emails them, A they are going to see it and B they’re going to reply…”
The first show Hazard ever shot was Modsun where Blackbear was an opener and through linking Blackbear he was able to snap pictures of five different artists with his photo pass.
Hazard was definitely put on after that, especially because he now had a portfolio he could present to headliners.
He really started believing in himself after Sammy Adams posted his photos and tagged Hazard’s handle. It was the first time a huge artist fucked with his eye. This was all while he was still attending high school.
Another turning point for Hazard was when he decided to attend college in OC, California giving up on his dreams to become a college baseball player, and focusing fully on photography.
Only an hour drive out of LA, Hazard would pull up to shows and take pictures for free. When his blogger boy, Ben, hit him up and got him into a Real 92.3 radio show headlined by Future, Kendrick Lamar, Jidenna, and Drake, Hazard knew it was over.
Homie took over 8,000 pictures that night. The proof is always in your work ethic.
Moving forward, Hazard now has an unmatchable photographic resume through shooting shows for free and forcing his way into a world most feel secluded and intimidated by.
Since then, Hazard has worked with Drake, The Weeknd, Wiz Khalifa, G Eazy, Rae Sremmurd and much more.
Peep the work Hazard has done for 6lack while he was on the Starboy Tour…
Lil Uzi Vert at the Day ‘n’ Night Festival
Travis Scott performing “Butterfly Effect”
And Future on his European tour
There’s a lot in store for Hazard as his career takes off into a different dimension of creativity. He’s moving fast, so make sure you can keep up.
Hopefully if you’re a young photographer trying to catch a break, you’ll be saying the same thing sooner rather than later. All you have to do is believe in yourself and work stupid hard. Let’s get it!