Nowadays, most people fancy themselves as a bit of a photographer. With apps like instagram, and even the most basic of phones in 2018 boasting high quality cameras, this selfie-crazed generation rates itself as having a keen eye. But it's not that simple.
To make it big in the industry, you really have to have something special. You don't take a photograph. You make it.
Christian Tierney is a 22-year-old photographer from Dublin, who from the age of 14 has had a huge interest in music and capturing moments. Whether it be pictures or videos.
Over the past few years, the Dubliner has experienced a meteoric rise, and has photographed celebrities such as Dua Lipa, Ellen DeGeneres, Niall Horan, Katy Perry, Conor McGregor...the list goes on.
MTV EMAs tonight with @HaileeSteinfeld 💥 pic.twitter.com/0w0ZTEPUqW
— Christian Tierney (@_CTierney) November 4, 2018
Speaking on Today FM's Dermot and Dave, Christian brought us back to where it all began - as a teenager filled with desire and persistence, who offered to video artists for free, "I went on the MCD website to see who was coming on tour to Dublin and just emailed the manager of every single act that was coming over".
His first big break was Macklemore (pre Thrift Shop) and from there, he managed to lock in a recording of Let It Go with James Bay, who gave him "the first ever recording of that song". A session that only took him two takes, in eleven minutes.
As he gradually built up his portfolio, and started to work with Niall Horan on his world tour last year, he discovered he loved working with the camera more, "eventually, I ended up enjoying photography a lot more than I enjoyed doing videography".
And remember this iconic image??
Well this was taken by Christian the day before the Mayweather vs McGregor fight in the T-Mobile Arena last year. Tierney explains how he got working with the Notorious, "when Conor was starting to get really big, I just thought that he's be incredible to photograph".
Then, after making some connections, he got to be a part of the #MayMac journey, "I was there for like basically the whole Mayweather campaign, with him in Dublin in his private boxing gym and then went to Vegas for 3 weeks with him".
He also has a story about Katy Perry, which, to use his own words was, "a bit mad".
When asked about what the future holds for him, Christian says he's considering, "givin' it a go somewhere else. So watch this space!
Check out Christian's chat in full by pressing the play button in the image at the top of the page.
