There is a moment senior Micah Bierman recalls, one pivotal to his career as a photographer. He was underage, standing outside a music venue in Queens, New York, armed with nothing but a camera and a borrowed VIP wristband. The show was a DJ set by The Dare with a strict guest list of photographers. Bierman, breaking his 10 p.m. curfew, walked straight up to security, showed his camera, and was let through.

“I put on the wristband and walked straight up to security,” Bierman said. “I showed him my camera and said, ‘I’m shooting.’”

He shot the show, and he took everyone’s portrait. A week later, the artists posted a recap using only his photos.

“I went from being underage, sneaking into this venue, to being the sole provider of photos from this show,” Bierman said. “That taught me to just walk with confidence. No one’s going to stop you. If you have confidence, you can crush it.”

It is a story that encapsulates Bierman pretty well. At 18, he has already built a name for himself in the music photography industry. He has captured everyone from local bands playing smaller venues to nationally touring artists performing to sold-out crowds. This fall, Bierman will attend New York University, where he plans to study photography.

Bierman’s passion began in middle school at a skatepark. As a middle schooler, Bierman was not particularly interested in most typical sports, so he gravitated toward skateboarding. Every day, he would go to the skatepark, but while he loved the culture, the sport itself did not come naturally to him.

“These kids had been doing it their whole lives, and I had been doing it for two months, which was a little discouraging,” Bierman said.

This discouragement faltered when an older skater handed him a camera.

“It was this massive VHS camera,” Bierman said. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is the ticket. This is how I can keep hanging out with my friends without having to keep falling and hurting myself skating.’”

For his bar mitzvah, his grandmother bought him a camcorder.

“I would just start going out [with my friends] every day just filming everything,” Bierman said.

Bierman first became involved with music photography when his brother’s band, Homesick Locations, played their first show at DC9, a 12-minute opening set that he was tasked with photographing using his cousin’s old Nikon D3100.

“I took a few pictures, and they weren’t great, but I thought they were just the most perfect things in the world,” Bierman said.

That was his first real shoot, and he was hooked.

“What first sparked my interest was really skateboarding, but I’ve always loved music,” Bierman said. “To be able to bring together my two loves for taking pictures and videos and making other people look cool and to be able to still stay connected to music, [that] not only sparked my interest but kept me going.”

His entry into shooting larger shows came through a coworker at Grandeur, the sneaker store where he worked. The coworker, a rapper named @csbscarti on Instagram, was playing a show at Union Stage. He asked Bierman to come as his own personal photographer.

“I was a little freaked out because every single rapper had their own cameraman,” Bierman said. “But that meant I had to talk to ten other cameramen.”

He started showing up everywhere with a camera and began reaching out to bands directly. For smaller shows, he would buy a ticket, shoot photos, then message the artists afterward.

“For a lot of smaller shows, you don’t need a photo pass,” Bierman said. “So I would just buy a ticket and go shoot and message the band after.”

Over the last three to four years, Bierman has moved to a more professional environment. Collaborating with publications like Teens Media Network, an organization focused on connecting youth and teens around the world through a shared interest in music photography and pop culture, as well as Sounds of Saving, a music outlet focused on mental health in music, Bierman has been introduced to a plethora of new opportunities.

“They’ve given me the chance to shoot at much larger venues because they give me that freedom to be like ‘You’re not a child, if you want to shoot a show, go find a show, find the contacts, and we’ll help you get there,’” Bierman said.

He recently shot JID and The Hellp at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, a show that typically allows only seven photographers or videographers in total. He showed up not entirely sure he would be let in, yet he was.

“Every single time I’m doing this, I’m learning new things,” Bierman said.

He understands what that opportunity requires.

“You have to prove to other people why you’re valuable and why you want to shoot a show because there’s a million photographers in the world,” Bierman said.

Along with learning confidence, Bierman has also learned how to build genuine connections. After being an active fan of the band since middle school, Bierman found himself in the photo pit of a Laundryday show. Halfway through the set, the lead singer, Jude Lipkin, looked down in the pit, saw him and stopped singing.

“He looks at me in the eyes and says, ‘I know you,” Bierman said. “It was such a fan moment. I was like ‘Oh my God, is this really happening to me?’ I had been listening to him since middle school, and now he knew who I was.”

An accomplishment he is particularly proud of followed shortly after. Laundryday played a show in Baltimore. They asked Bierman to come before the set, and he spent the day with them.

“It just meant a lot to see people respect me and like my work and see me as a person so much that they want to invite me to come hang out with them,” Bierman said.

While Bierman enjoys the benefits of his passion,he understands the sacrifice and logistics of making photography a career. He has taken on more commercial work, from shooting nightclubs to sports games, which, to him, are not the most exciting.

“To me, it’s about balancing that creativity and that passion for what you love with also knowing that you still have to pay the bills,” Bierman said. “I know that if I want to keep getting new equipment and upgrading, I have to do some of those jobs that feel like work. [I know that] I’m going to have to do certain jobs to pay the bills, but there’s no reason that I can’t get creative with this more commercial work. You just have to be able to stand your ground and make your work fun.”

Bierman is constantly refining his craft. He follows other photographers on social media to observe their processes. It is a careful balance to draw inspiration from others without losing oneself in comparison.

“With TikTok and Instagram, I love to see other people’s processes,” Bierman said. “With social media, it’s so easy to constantly see other people’s work, but it’s also a source of inspiration. Other people have such cool work, I love to see it and see what other people are doing and how I could level up.”

He will poll his dad, his friends and even people who know nothing about photography.

“I want everyone, no matter who you are, no matter what you like, even if you hate music, I want you to think this picture is cool and I want you to feel something from it,” Bierman said.

This fall, Bierman heads to New York University to continue his passion for photography, an achievement he is especially proud of.

“I’m so proud of myself for that because I’ve worked so hard for it,” Bierman said. “In my four years of high school, I found something that I love, and I made a career out of it.”

Some of his dream projects and clients are characteristically ambitious: shoot the band Geese, photograph a major music festival, work with LCD Soundsystem. He cites photographer Lewis Evans as one of his greatest inspirations.

“I just want to do everything,” Bierman said. “I want to be great. I want to be that guy that if you need anything in the photo world done, I got you, and if I don’t know you, I know a guy who’s got you.”

His advice to young photographers is to stick with their passion and take it seriously.

“The way to go from a passion to a career is just know what you want,” Bierman said. “Stay intentional with everything you do and keep going no matter what.”

What began as a simple hobby has evolved into a defining force in Bierman’s life; an outlet that shaped his place in the world.

“It’s my personality now, and it started off as just a hobby because I was bored,” Bierman said. “It’s given me purpose, it’s made me who I am.”