Meet Nathan Hayes | LA Portrait Photographer

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

Hi Nathan, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I got started with photography back when I was a sophomore in high school. At the time, I was on my school’s yearbook staff as a journalist and as soon as I was enrolled in my first photo class, I immediately switched over to become a staff photographer. My high school was a rigorous all-boys school and on paper I was a highly successful student, but on the inside I was quite miserable. It occurred to me that this could be my life: I could be working a job where I made a ton of money but outside of making income my life could be fairly meaningless. Photography gave me a sense of purpose because through my work I was able to connect with others and share their stories. While I was a senior in high school, I won some of the top national competitions in the country for photography, being selected as one of ten YoungArts photo finalists, winning a gold key for my art portfolio from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and coming in 4th for photojournalist of the year by the National Scholastic Press Association. This gave me the confidence to believe that I could perhaps pursue photography as a career going forward.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My career is still in its infancy. I was formally introduced to photography when I was 15 and spent my sophomore through senior year shooting on the yearbook photo staff. Then I went to college and covid hit during the second half of my freshman year, and we didn’t return until my junior year, so a lot of my growth was stunted in that regard. It wasn’t really until my junior year that things started to pick back up. During my sophomore and junior year, I spent some time reaching out to photographers to get connected with them and to see if I could work with them. Most of the time, I didn’t hear back, but the few times I did, it was definitely worth it. One of the most meaningful connections I had made was with Peter Prato, a photographer based up in the Bay Area who took the time to get lunch with me and ended up hiring me on my first assisting gig with a job he was doing at Google. So I did my first assisting job when I was 20 years old. When I was 21, I assisted on a cover shoot for Variety magazine, making that my first cover shoot job. And when I turned 22, I did my first assisting job for a celebrity shoot. When I reflect on it, these are accomplishments that I’m proud to have already achieved at such a young age, but there’s definitely a lot more to do in terms of growing. After I graduated from college, the 2023 writer’s strike got into full swing and that made finding photo assisting work difficult. So, I pivoted and managed to land a job in one of LA’s premier photo studios, Milk Studios. Working at Milk has been challenging, but that’s exactly what I signed up for, and I know that it’s going to exponentially increase my competency on set because the standards at Milk are so high. Growing up, I used to play soccer competitively, and at the time, I had such a passion for the sport, and now that passion has been placed into photography–I’ll say that anyone who has a true passion for what they do wants to do it to the highest level. So working at Milk has been such a fantastic opportunity for someone as young as me because I know that I’m working at the highest level that I can be in the studio setting. When I eventually get back into assisting, I want to do it to the highest level. And when I start to transition later down the line to shooting full time, I want to do it to the highest level. I was told that this career path is a marathon, not a sprint. My focus is to consistently show up everyday and I know that that work will compound over time and get me to where I want to be.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If someone I knew was coming up to LA, I would take them Palos Verdes to check out the beautiful ocean views, Grand Central Market to get some delicious food, and the Getty to see one of the most iconic museums in the world.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Up to this point, I’m only 22 so I have a long way to go in my journey, but when I reflect on how far I’ve come so far there’s two people in particular that come to mind that have helped me in my growth so far. The first is Ms. Wendy Crockett, my high school photo teacher. Ms. Crockett is one of those teachers who not only has a passion for her job but is someone who also genuinely cares about her students’ wellbeing. Her photo classes were engaging and informative (far more so than the ones I took in college) and she challenged her students to become better photographers and push the boundaries of what they could make. If Ms. Crockett was a bad teacher whose class was a boring, easy A, I can guarantee I would have never gotten interested in photography. Secondly, my years in high school were formative ones and while I was struggling to figure out who I was Ms. Crockett provided support along the way. So without Ms. Crockett, I’m not sure what I would be doing, but I don’t think it would be photography. The next person that comes to mind when I think about people who have supported me through my creative journey is photographer Art Streiber. Art works to a level that many photographers, including myself, aspire to be at one day. He is a big believer in creating community and sharing the knowledge with others. Back when I was 20 years old, I reached out to Art and met him at his LA office. Since then, he’s played a huge role in helping me to navigate the photo world and exposing me to new opportunities that have helped me to grow as a photographer.

Website: https://www.nathanwarrenhayes.com

Instagram: @nathan_warren_hayes

Image Credits
All images taken by Nathan Hayes.