Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Marcus Howard. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Marcus, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today The first dollar you earn in a new endeavor is always special. We’d love to hear about how you got your first client that wasn’t a friend or family.

OOOOO this is a good one. I did a lot of one-off little photo projects in high school, but during college was when I got my first real consistent gig. I went to UMass Dartmouth, which is in Dartmouth, MA. Being a primarily college town, there’s not a lot to do off campus. On Thursdays though, everyone (and I mean everyone) went to Silante, a local Irish bar not known for their tight security iykyk.

I’ve always been a social butterfly, and I was friends with a bunch of people on campus. Someone heard through the grapevine that the photographer who was doing their Thursday college event was leaving, so my name came up. I became the Thursday photographer along with their social team, graphic designer, client liaison, etc., etc. Get this—all for drum roll $100 a week.

At the time I was pumped. I was able to get some money for my activities every week and also had income that didn’t disrupt my schedule. Now, would I have taken this job today? Hell no. But it did give me a lot of life lessons and made me realize basically no one knew what they were doing and work can be hard but also super fun!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Marcus Howard. I am a Boston-based photographer who loves to photograph it all. If you know the term “Jack of all trades,” that’s how I would describe myself but at my core, I am a brand photographer. I love the challenge of taking the ideas brands and people have and bringing their vision to life through a lens. Being able to match a variety of vibes, moods, lighting techniques, etc., is something I pride myself on. I’d say I am most knowledgeable about food, e-commerce, concert, and portrait photography.

In high school, I really struggled with foreign language, so my guidance counselor graciously offered me media tech instead to meet graduation requirements. By then, I had already picked up photography as a hobby after a close family friend gifted me a camera to play around with. I started taking pictures of everything and anything. I quickly became my school’s photographer games, special events, assemblies you name it, I shot it! My first printed photography can be found in my high school yearbooks. Since then, I have so many credits I can’t even count, but the ones I’m most proud of are the five years I worked as an in-house photographer for two companies.

I have been doing professional photography since I graduated high school in 2015. After earning my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from UMass Dartmouth in 2019, I secured my first post-grad job as a photo retoucher and Jr. Photographer at Life is Good. A few years later, I became the lead brand photographer for the vegan meal kit service Purple Carrot. I am currently freelancing in the Boston area but have shot all around the country!

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Honestly, I’ve always been a huge advocate of reaching out to more senior people in my industry. The advice I would give, though, is that you also need to reach out to people who are on the same level as you. Learning together is how you foster communities. Try to make as many friends as you can, ask “dumb” questions, it takes five seconds to shoot off an IG DM, and the worst they can do is not respond.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

To me, I am achieving success if I am having fun in this profession. It can be difficult, it can be frustrating—it could be anything under the sun—but if it’s not fun, you shouldn’t be doing it. This is art—it should be fun. Passion is just another word for really intense fun.

Relating that back to my goal, I want to be doing as many fun projects as I can. I honestly don’t have a particular end goal in mind; I’m excited to see what’s coming next. I want to be able to pay my rent and take my wife out on fun dates sometimes other than that, it’s all gravy! I love what I do at its core, and photography has already taken me so many places. I’m here for the ride!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://marcusearlphoto.squarespace.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marcus_earl/

Image Credits

me (lol)