Mother's Love for Cameras, Inspired Him to Pick One Up: an Interview with Liam Barberi

Liam Barberi is a photographer from Los Angeles, California! He has loved photography since he was little & slowly shifted from simple portrait photos to outside the box creative photoshoots. He shoots & conceptualizes album covers, shoots for brands, and is currently pursuing graphic design & creative direction in school! His instagram is @liambarberi if you wanna check out his stuff!

What first got you into taking pictures and how old were you?

My mom was a photographer and at the time, worked in NYC. So when I was born, she moved to LA with my dad. After my mom passed away, my dad gave me a box of all of her cameras and I was 12 when I started taking pictures. I started out taking pictures of my friends skating and then it slowly transformed from pictures of the beach and my friends to creative concepts. During my freshman year of high school, I was on  Pinterest and I thought “oh my god, I want to do something like that”. So I jumped into the creative side of it and started experimenting with glitter, paint, and backstage stuff.

Do you have a specific photoshoot that stands out or  a favorite photoshoot of yours that you've done?

I'm really proud of everything I've done. I was never a good student and school was never my thing and so, when I was in high school I would spend all my time, money, and energy into these photo shoots. I'm proud of all my photoshoots because I put my literal soul into it. However, my favorite shoot of all time is a photo I took of my bed on the beach. I thought of the idea at 3AM and doodled the image on snapchat and saved it. I borrowed an air mattress from my friend and brought my nightstand and a few other things and drove to the beach at 6AM. I took about 15 photos and then I took one on my phone and I liked the quality more. It's my favorite because of the shock value it had. When I posted the photo to Instagram, all the comments were like “Did you actually put your bed on the beach?” or “Why would you do that?”, so that's why I love it so much.

You have over 135K followers on Tik Tok and over 10k followers on Instagram. What caused the sudden surge in followers? 

Yeah so I started posting more photos on my instagram and I gained a ton of followers from that. I posted tik toks about me losing weight, making fun of living in LA, and how I moved out on my 18th birthday. The tik tok of me moving out got 9.6 million views and that's when my instagram followers went from 6000 to 8000. Basically, a lot of my followers are from tik tok. It's weird because the way I worked Tik Tok into my photography plays a role in where I'm at now. 

How did Tik Tok and Instagram impact your photography/opportunities?

I remember thinking “how do I get influencers to shoot with me?” Shooting with influencers was my dream and I've thought of it since freshman year of highschool.

I did my first influencer shoot over the summer and she posted the picture, which brought three more Instagram girls into my DMS and then more and more people started to DM me asking for a photoshoot. Jacob Sartorius DMed me and asked to do a facetime photoshoot so I facetimed him and we did it and he posted it.

How has quarantine affected your photography?

I started doing FaceTime photoshoots because I realized it's a great way to reach people who are far away. Each facetime shoot has been less than 15 minutes which is crazy. I send them poses and outfit inspiration so they know what to do.When I first heard about it  I wasn't a fan because they set up the camera angle and choose the outfit and basically do everything. However, with my shoots I tried to take a lot of control by telling them to move their phone at a certain angle and how to pose. 

Where do you get your inspiration from?

My horror movie posters. I remember seeing the American Horror Story 1984 poster of a girl and a knife and I thought “Oh my god, I should do something like that and recreate a movie poster. I have to think about movie posters that could be humanized because some horror movie posters are scary and not cute. So then I thought of the movie Carrie and and tried to put my own twist on it while combining elements from the old poster with my version.

If you can photograph anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?

My mom. She is the one who got me into photography and if I didn't receive her cameras I would not be a photographer. I received her cameras when I was 12 years old and at the time I was not myself at all. My cameras are what taught me how to be myself. My mom inspired me and I think it'd be a very full-circle moment to take a photo of her with her camera that was passed down to me.