Today we’d like to introduce you to Zaul Lizalde.
Hi Zaul, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always had this innate creative inclination. Some of my earliest memories are drawing superheroes and filling my walls with them till my mom would take all the drawings down. I would inevitably fill them up again.
I received a guitar for my 8th birthday but it remained untouched until I was about 12 when one day. I basically taught myself how to read guitar tabs by just staring at the ones laying on my brother’s bed till they made sense. It was a very empowering experience. From there I would continually pick up new instruments.
That ultimately led me to going through the Digital Music production program at the Icon Collective in Burbank. For the first time, I was surrounded by tons of creatives who valued a life filled with art in the same way I did. Despite it being a hard time for me personally and financially, I learned a lot and met a lot of really amazing people.
After music school ended, I had a brief career as a playback engineer for an a-list artist. I wasn’t ready for the position and I was fired after the first gig. I had already been given a camera to borrow by my mom since I was supposed to start traveling and I told myself I would use this as an opportunity to learn photography.
I carried a camera with me everywhere I went and built up a reputation just by being seen with it from that point on. People would ask me to shoot with them and I would get invited to events. My first few events was just a string of blurry photos. But slowly I started to figure it out. Around that time I made friends with a promoter named J in the LA nightlife industry. He made the introduction to a man named Marvin Epstein and a foundation called Karma.
Karma is known for having thrown the Playboy events. Suddenly I was working in much more high-end environments. I slowly befriended him and he ended up presenting me with my first celebrity opportunity. It was to shoot photos and be media manager for Desiigner’s birthday party at Jake Paul’s Mansion in Calabasas. It’s still to this day probably the best event I’d ever been to and at the time I got paid the most I’d ever been paid to shoot photos there.
After that, I kinda just rode the wave and ended up shooting Jake Paul’s Wedding, Logan Paul’s Luau, Tana Mongeau’s 21st birthday and many other experiences in the LA entertainment scene. Cut to a few years and a whole pandemic later I recently shot photo and video for The Weeknd’s NFT Incubator “Hxouse” in San Francisco, the season premiere and screening for The Sex Lives of College girls for HBO and The Series Finale Screening for The Walking Dead.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It definitely wasn’t as hard as it might be for others but for myself, I can personally say there were a lot of lows and there was a lot of self-doubts. There were periods where I had to work 12 hours a day for months or sleep on friend’s couches for months to get through music school, I wouldn’t be able to do what I do if I wasn’t passionate about it.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a Music Producer/Music Educator/ Photographer & Videographer. It’s hard to say what I’m known for, different people might tell you different things. I’m most proud of the fact that I am the son of two Mexican immigrants who came to this country to seek opportunity and I have seized that opportunity. That I’ve managed to have all these amazing experiences, and that I’ve had the courage to continue to pursue my own version of the American dream, despite the obstacles that come with that path.
I’d say the thing that makes me unique is my creative depth and technical knowledge. I don’t see myself as being defined specifically by any of these creative mediums. I feel like they are all different tools of expression for my creativity. Once I learn the rules and the structure to an art form I can really integrate it into my being.
How do you think about luck?
In some regards, I have been lucky, but on the other hand, I’ve been very strategic about getting what I wanted. It’s not something that just fell into my lap. I found ways to create opportunities for myself and then walked in the direction of those opportunities. I had to put myself through a lot to get to where I currently am. I would say where I’ve been lucky is to have good parents and to have ended up in Southern California. I can’t understate how foundational that has been.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zaul.lizalde/
Image Credits
People in photos include Logan Paul, Mike Majlak, Adam 22, Riley Reid, Lil Mosey, Tana Mongeau, Stevewilldoit, Norman Reedus, Terry Crews, Steven Ogg, All photos taken by myself Except for personal photo. Personal photo taken by @TrevorJphoto on instagram.
