Check Out Marc Cortes’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marc Cortes.

Hmmm… my very first start with photography would be in 2011-2012 when I worked at a Best Buy in Stroudsburg, PA and my zone for selling was  iPods and cameras.

I’ve always loved raw street photography and knew eventually I’d want to shoot something similar to that. At the time I thought being a dude with a camera would be cool enough in the small town I lived in but now looking back I didn’t have much of a game plan, if any at the time.

Leading into 2013-2014 some family issues started which had always been pretty solid up until this point. My family started moving around, I was super young having issues with my child’s mom. We lost my stepdad and pretty much hit rock bottom as a unit. Though for a majority of my life my mom was a single mother she never made my brother and I want for anything. We were the kids in middle school with authentic jerseys, the newest sneakers, etc. Now damn near grown and going to food pantries for to eat and my mom struggling (openly) for the first time was rough. In late 2014 my immediate family had to split, mom dukes went to Virginia, my brother went to Staten Island and I went to live with my aunt and cousins in Brooklyn,NY.

While living with my aunt in BK I’d spend a lot of time in soho where I would often visit as a teen. I’ve always been infatuated with streetwear culture, so I knew that’s exactly where I wanted to be. One day I told my aunt “Titi I think if I had a camera, I could have a gallery show in a year’s time” BOY, WAS I WRONG! I clearly didn’t know shit about shit and was saying anything to get her to take a chance on giving me a 4K loan. Long story short she believed in my nonsense, so I met her after work one day and we went to Adorama on W 18th st in Manhattan. The canon 5d MkIII was now mine…once again no game plan but I had a fire camera.

I always knew I had a great eye and knew exactly what people wanted culturally being raised directly in that shit…so maybe that was my game plan? It just took way longer than I thought to pop…who knows. I would go to soho and other spots around Manhattan and just shoot shit I liked… camping overnight at preme? Bring the cam! Or if I was linking with my then best friend (now girlfriend) to walk around soho broke af for hours I’d bring the camera and just snipe whoever was fly.

I think it was around that time very few people started to think “Okay Marc has potential”.

Due to shitty circumstances, I ended up moving to Manassas, VA shortly after I started finding my zone in NYC and that shit just lead to me falling into a depression. I didn’t even realize I was in a depression until years later… literally all I did was eat and sleep.  It was so bad but I had absolutely no motivation, no drive, I had went from NYC to this small ass town I thought was weird af at the time. Now working at a Goodwill.

Not creating shit, broker than ever I ended up pawning my camera and lens and honestly had no clue if I’d ever get it back.

Long story short, my homie Shmeed believed in me and thought I was dumb for pawning my camera. So he ended up paying the $200 I owed to the pawnshop, I got my camera back and that’s when I started to take it seriously.

After getting my camera back I didn’t shoot anything super major still being in a small town I would shoot fly people I met in Manassas like my guy Jack and his wife. Who  were 2 people really inspiring me at the time. That lead to me getting a little active on social again and if we knew anything from the start of this… the eye is there. I started getting love on the photos and I was back to creating my vision.

Now this is when I started with the celeb work… I was infamous for shooting my shot on instagram. I would send several dozen DMs a day and now that I look back, I’m sure they were borderline rude and mega corny  but hey I was determined.

That’s when I met Ian Schwartzman, who would give me little gigs shooting his artist’s such as Bishop Nehru, Dj Premier, and the Original Joe Budden podcast when they had a live NYC show. Those photos then led to other gigs (free gigs but I was just happy to be in the room). I ended up shooting a soccer game for NYCFC at Yankee stadium. I don’t know anything about soccer but being a huge Yankee fan I just wanted to walk in the field at Yankee Stadium so I did it and surprised myself that night. I shot fast action for the first time and killed it!!

Shortly after, I shot 2 days at Rolling Loud NYC for a company named Gld who did not pay me but again I was just happy to be in the room.

After those RL photos is when  I really was like okay if I  can get myself  in these rooms now. I’m going to eat… So now how does someone in Manassas, VA with absolutely nothing to his name battling depression and becoming borderline antisocial get into these rooms? I had no clue.

Now it’s 2020. I’m in Manassas mid-pandemic. My girlfriend Monica and I decide to take a leap of faith and pack the little we had and move across the country to Los Angeles to chase these dreams. I knew I was getting older, and something had to be done. If I was comfortable around my family all the time I don’t think I would have done something. It took for me to move somewhere I’ve never pictured myself living where the culture is totally different. All  Monica and I could ask ourselves is “how are we gonna stay afloat here?” We have only so much money to our name that wasn’t even enough for 3 months rent. We put whatever we had towards rent and kept 2k to our names until we could get shit rolling.

The first gig I got in LA was with my brother Kelli, who I only knew on Instagram prior. He had me help him with a shoot in Diamond Bar for $300 bucks and I was so appreciative of that because that got the ball rolling for me in LA. Shortly after that shoot I had hit someone up by the name of @supermodi on IG. I had no clue who he was but though it’ll be a great idea to offer him a free photo shoot since he’s from the DMV. He picked my brain and I told him I truly believe with the right backing here in LA I feel I could be one of the best in this photo game. He responded that connecting dots is one of his talents.

The rest is history… in the short time since then I think I’ve worked with almost every major record label out here, so that’s a huge blessing and has changed things for me.

Last year I got invited to a RedBull photographer workshop held by the OG and now friend Jeremy Deputat; where RedBull was on the search for new shooters. It was the first workshop of it’s kind so being a part of that with other dope shooters was amazing. The wonderful people at RedBull I guess loved what I brought  to the table and that has led to me building something solid with them. So, going from shooting free gigs to working with Major record labels, Cadillac, Adidas, RedBull and now LA TIMES in two years time is a dream come true.

Definitely not a smooth road and while on the road you panic at times and shit seems impossible. I’ve now  learned to love the journey and really embrace the ride I’m on.

I’m a photographer, I would have to say I specialize in portraits, but I do pride myself on being super diverse. I never really wanted to box myself in, so I always shot anything related to the culture that being sports, fashion, live music, street life… anything I liked. I think that’s what  sets me apart from a lot of photographers! I always thought when it’s all said and done obviously, I want to be known for my own style but if I had to mix two people’s styles it’ll be Atiba Jefferson and David La’Chapelle.

I’m really just proud to have been raised the way I was… I’m sure when my mom had my brother at 17 and myself at 22 it wasn’t super ideal but her being young and raising us the way she did worked for us.  I also believe spending almost the same amount of time in NYC and The Poconos helped me learn to “move” in different rooms. When my bad ass moved to the Poconos at 10 there wasn’t many kids like myself in school. The Poconos was nowhere near as diverse as it is today. I was just a wild-ass 10-year-old in the Bronx and had to come to the Poconos where we had to ride school buses? That was a big deal to me. I say all of that to say the way I was raised worked, we were into all the trendy cool shit super early, and it shows now.

Hmmm this is though… obviously, there’s always going to be amazing new talent emerging and I’m excited to meet and work with a bunch of up-and-coming people as myself. I think the artistry in photography is kinda fading away though. Everyone these days can be a photographer if you own an iPhone, a Polaroid, etc. Everyone’s a content creator today and I think that outlook has shaped the way people view artists. Many think you’re not a real artist because you don’t post every other day. I can’t speak for others but for me, this is really a journey, I can’t rush things just to drop. When I do something I really have to love it, or it’ll never see the light of day.