We recently connected with Mauricio De Riglos and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Mauricio thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

For quite a long time I wanted to learn something different related to music industry. I went to College to study logistics and I was in that industry for like 15 years, I liked it but at the same time I always used my free time to learn new things, back in Peru I used to do some music production at home and when I came to the states I was in the Tattoo Industry, it was a 9-5 job as a studio manager in midtown Manhattan, it was very fun but at some point I decided to start working as an independent, I managed to get 3 jobs (which I still do), one in construction, another as a paralegal and the third one as tattoo artist manager, all my jobs were from home and I had the need to step out of the house and do something different and fun, the options were music production or photography. Music production would also keep me in the house most of the time so I decided to go for photography.

Mauricio, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

At the beginning I started with a very low budget equipment, a camera (Sony 5100) that my old boss gave to me and some old manual lenses (Minolta) that I got second hand. I managed to start practicing at a local venue known for electronic music such as hard techno and hardstyle (which are my favorite), the organizer had the kindness to let me take pictures for the events, it was struggle at first because my camera was very old and manual lenses for this genre a quite challenging because everyone is dancing and moving constantly that the manual focus of the lens was not making it easy. Once I found the limitations of my current gear I decided to buy a better camera, a Sony a7iii, second hand and one lens, a Tamron 28-70mm. And that was a huge step for me. At the start I would only do photography, and the event organizer and artists were very happy with my work, for being just a beginner it was decent considering the limitations of light (very dark environment).
Around 4-5 months passed and I was still practicing for the venue and began to practice videography, because everyone wanted to have video footage, I saw as an opportunity to learn more and also to start getting gigs and start charging for my services. A couple of months passed and I started to get hired by artists and other venues/events. It was a very rewarding experience because I was also making a lot of friends which were so happy to see themselves in my videos and photos. The community of this particular music genres mentioned before (hard techno and hardstyle) have been very kind to me, a lot of regulars that attend the same venues and events that I shoot for, it feels like a family when I go to work for those events, now I do also work for other genres like house, drum and bass, which I do also enjoy.
It is just a great feeling when you have appreciation from your work. As I go deep into photography and videography I continually watch more video and forums to learn more, meet other colleagues and talk about our experiences and share tips, it is a never ending path of growth and new adventures.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Everything I learned was from experience and from the internet, I never went to school for photography and videography and I think that even if it takes longer to learn this way I think it was considerably more rewarding to see how your work improves as you continually learn from your mistakes and make corrections to be better. But the most important thing I would say is to not give up, it is easy to learn a bit and then stop, the most beautiful thing is when you don’t give up and see how your work improves considerably. I sometimes go back to my old photos and see the difference on quality, composition and editing; I can see the progress that I have achieved, even if it is little by little, stick to that feeling and keep going.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I started photography I was in a very difficult moment of my life, my mom had an accident in Peru and I couldn’t be there for her at that moment, she is doing well now thankfully. Also I had my heart broken and a lot of stress from my 3 other jobs. It was probably not the best moment to begin but at the same time gave me something to hold into. I was extremely depressed, barely had food, lost a lot of weight, it was very bad. But I hold into this new adventure, now that I look back it was what I needed, something to challenge myself and proof to myself that I could do it. Every little step was a reward and way to say, you are making it happen, you are doing progress, you can achieve things. It was a very lonely moment in my life and also going to these events and making new friends helped me a lot. Along with that ,and I think it was one of the pillars of my healing, was practicing yoga, I found this climbing gym close home and they had a yoga instructor who taught Katonah Yoga, Kent Ishimoto is his name, him and the community of the yoga class changed my life, made me more confident, appreciated and welcomed. Body and mind are so connected, we sometimes forget that, the yoga and community healed my mind from the depression that I had back then. Other important things to mention would be therapy, super important, reading and listening to podcasts like Jay Shetty, Lewis Howes and Jillian Turecki, which I still listen to almost everyday. Now that I look back, I would not have changed any decision because it all got me where I am now.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nolightsnyc.myportfolio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nolightsnyc/

Image Credits

The picture of me was taken by Nina Dougherty.
The pictures I have taken were for the following events:
We Belong Here
Agape
Hard Dance NYC