We had the good fortune of connecting with Jacob Moniz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jacob, why did you pursue a creative career?
As a kid I was always fascinated with art. Even though I wasn’t great at hands on arts & crafts I stumbled upon photography in high school when I was required to have an art credit to graduate. I quickly fell in love capturing portraits. I went on to do a couple video competitions and my passions grew deeper. Then around early June 2021 I started attending local concerts. I thought it would be super fun to capture that sort of energy so I reached out to multiple different venues applying for photo passes all over. At first I didn’t have much success but there were a couple local bands who gave me a shot and I then developed my style and started making it out to bigger shows.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
With being a concert photographer its a very saturated business to get into. And I found it pretty hard to get into shows that were intriguing to me at first. It took a lot of emails to different management teams, publications, and venues to finally get some traction. Getting started shooting for a publication made things a lot easier. It also gave me a chance to work on writing which I find is a super nice asset to have in this specific business. I feel like the biggest hurdle was getting started but once I got in and shot a couple shows many more opportunities revealed themselves. It was mainly just gaining the confidence to reach out and gain connections with people who were already involved in the music scene.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would 100% take them to a concert at The Complex and The Depot in SLC, There’s plenty of different food spots downtown as well. But majority of my time would probably be spent at a concert or showing them around the canyons we have to offer in the SLC and Utah Counties.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I owe a huge shoutout to the band members in Sunfish, especially Carter Sears. I wouldn’t be where I am in the concert scene if I hadn’t shown up to one of their shows last year. That show inspired me to pursue and fall in love with the concert scene.

Website: jacobmoniz.com

Instagram: jacob.moniz

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