Bella Macleod
Feature Editor
Senior Liam Barberi has gained a lot of traction over the years for his love of photography.
In 2015, Barberi started taking photos after being inspired by a photographer he found on Pinterest. For his first project, he photographed his friends with glitter on their necks. Barberi tagged the photographers that inspired his glitter photos, but put his personal interpretation on the photos to make them unique.
“When my mother passed away summer of 2012, I got all of her camera equipment because she used to take family pictures, so I took photos for a couple months in 2013,” Barberi said. “I basically started [photography] again in 2015 when I did a photo shoot with glitter for the first time.”
Last summer, Barberi entered the Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation photography contest, “Hashtag Manhappening,” which had three categories: Beach Life, Community Life and Parks and Open Spaces. Barberi submitted a photo of his friend on an oversized swan floatie at the beach and won first place in the Beach category.
“They had an exhibit at the Manhattan Beach Creative Arts Center where there was a huge Instagram screen shot cut out of my photo,” Barberi said.
Barberi started to grow his photography and social media platform as a social media intern at Lucia Entertainment last summer.
“[My photography] hasn’t taken off yet but it has been receiving a little bit more attention than I usually get,” Barberi said.
Barberi first sparked a lot of attention with his rainbow series, in which he took photos of different people wearing the colors of the rainbow. Instagram gave Barberi a $30 credit to promote his photos.
“My first photo shoot that did super well was my rainbow themed photo shoot; it was an original idea, and I think I executed it really well,” Barberi said.
When he’s not using his Canon, Barberi uses disposable cameras for photo shoots such as “Glitter Party.” The shoot consisted of party essentials, such as red Solo cups, which he filled with glitter and then photographed them with his friends.
“I posted one of the glitter photos on my VSCO, [a photo editing app] a while ago and I still get notifications for it,” said Barberi. “It’s crazy to see how far my photos have gone.”
Barberi held a raffle for the Arts Unleashed Club at Costa in which the winners, juniors Emily Fasano and Alex Chase, won the opportunity to have a photoshoot with Barberi. Tickets for the raffle were $3, or two for $5. Barberi will donate all of the proceeds to Free Arts, a non profit organization in Los Angeles that gives support to inner city kids through art.
“I feel strongly about the cause; I think it’s amazing how Emma [Clough] and Hayley [Gordon] started their club to help raise art awareness for kids,” Barberi said.
According to Barberi, his photography is just for fun right now, but he has done a paid photoshoot with Hush Hush Hair Salon in Downtown Manhattan Beach. In the future he hopes for companies to reach out for creative photoshoots, Barberi said.
“One goal of mine that I think would be the coolest thing ever is I want to shoot a magazine cover,” Barberi said. “I don’t care if its Vogue or something I’ve never heard of before, but I think it’d be so awesome.”
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