Drew Perez
Beneath Drew Perez’s laidback demeanor, there’s a dedication to mastering the art and practice of photography. He begins our conversation, in fact, by telling me he’s “just f^cking around” with his camera, “learning as much as possible” before an upcoming music video shoot. That shoot in particular (for up & comer Ricky Deaton) involved turning his garage into an art studio, setting up a swanky dining table on an abandoned tennis court, and hauling camera gear over a fence in order to sneak into a Long Beach baseball stadium. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
One glance at Drew’s social media feed and it may seem like the Turlock, California-born photographer, videographer, and director doesn’t really have a set specialty when it comes to shooting. There’s moody music video BTS, firecracker EDM concert footage, and enough wanderlust snaps of teal blue waters, epic mountaintop vistas, and gentle giant dormant volcanoes to make anyone say, “Damn.”
The common through line is that Drew’s portfolio is a masterclass in color theory, fueled by an editing process that’s both methodical and inventive. Over the years, he’s set up camp in the upper echelon of travel photographers, with breathtaking shots that’ve no doubt wound their way onto many a “Places I'd Love to Visit” list. In 2019, he took it a step further, making Phuket, Thailand his permanent HQ and periodically hopping on flights to Japan, Cambodia, and Vietnam, among other countries. Through it all, he’s championed a kind of travel photography that invites viewers into the experience without setting them apart.
These days, Drew’s a bit more settled, though still always down for adventure. With a home base in sunny Long Beach, California, he’s been on a steady grind editing projects and shooting behind-the-scenes footage and snaps for artists like Miguel, YG, and Gryffin, and has spearheaded brand photography campaigns for companies like Spy, Monster, and Panasonic, to name just a few.
Check out some of Drew’s work below, and read on for the full interview, where we talk Central Cali tractor pulls, seeing the northern lights in Alaska, and partying with Machine Gun Kelly in Bangkok.
How’d you get into photography in the first place?
It all started with a GoPro. I actually started in design and then my parents got me a GoPro Hero 3, I think? Back before Instagram was even a thing, I was taking some cool photos and making some videos in iMovie, attaching the GoPro to my skimboard and sh^t like that. I used to record my friends and I going to the beach, hiking, stuff like that.
Eventually it got to a point where a GoPro just wasn’t enough, and I wanted to take landscape photos. Sometime around 2016 I convinced my parents to get me a DSLR, like a Canon 70D, and then ever since it was kind of just game over. I obsessed over it. I did all my research, and I made a giant cheat sheet, 'cause I didn't know what ISO, or aperture, or all this other sh^t was, but I knew I didn't want to shoot in auto mode. So I made a 20 page photo cheat sheet for how they all work together. I literally had it printed and packed in my camera bag, so if I were on a trip and I got confused, I would just whip that b^tch out. I did that for a solid year until it became second nature, went from a 70D to a 6D, and by then I knew it was something I really loved.
I’ve never heard anyone from the west coast talk about skimboarding.
Oh hell yeah. I grew up close enough to Santa Cruz where we could do solid day trips. My buddy got me into skimboarding really heavy in our freshman year of high-school, and I brought [my board] down here to Long Beach when I moved here, so we would always go skimboarding in Laguna.
But yeah I skimboard, wakeboard, wakeskate, all that stuff. I'm from Modesto area (Turlock, if you want to get specific), in central California. Central Valley, and it’s farm country, like the middle of nowhere, so I grew up going mudding, fishing, floating down the river. All my friends have dairies, as in, their families are dairy farmers, so back in high school we used to party on the dairies with the country folks.
Actually, the most country thing ever, is called a tractor pull: It’s a bunch of people who soup up these big trucks, and they basically tow these tractors and see how far they can get before they lose power. It’s all these lifted Ford trucks with these crazy engines. That's the kind of place I'm from.
I know you spent a long time in Asia, and in Thailand specifically. How did travel, especially to totally new countries, affect your perspective?
That trip changed my life forever. You go to so many places that are just beat to sh^t, but then you meet people there and they're just so happy, so bubbly. They don't have Instagram, or social media. And that was literally my year abroad — I was genuinely checked out for a whole year of US stuff. All this crazy sh^t was going on while we were gone, but we were such in our own bliss. It taught me to put energy into what actually matters and not let exterior things f*ck with me.
As far as work goes, I don't go into anything with expectation anymore. You realize that when you start planning things and then nothing goes according to plan. That kind of thing just kept happening in Asia: Missing flights, being sick (even just being homesick), constantly being in a new environment and having to be zoomed in on our senses — smell, sight, hearing — it was a nice reflection to focus on what matters, keep your head down, and not compare yourself to other people.
In the beginning [of my time in Thailand], I would get really self conscious, even anxious, about posting things. I really cared. I wanted the stuff I put out, and the reaction to it, to validate that what I was doing was “right.” My brain was messing with me because my work wouldn’t do well on social media, and yet I was constantly improving my skills, gaining more and more success, and acquiring new clients in the “real world.” That’s more or less the reason I don't post on social media anymore. I have so much work that’s never seen the light of day, but I don't feel the need to post it. I don’t want to be saying, like, “Hey guys just so you know … I'm still doing it!” Traveling has helped me just to not give a f*ck.
How did you refine your photography style, especially for travel photography, and how did you get better at that over time?
It took 2 years at least. I jumped back and forth between different styles, and then I’d try to put other people’s styles on my own photos and it’d never work out the same way. Eventually I realized that just because I see art that I like, doesn't mean that's the style I want, you know?
I love colors, though. I don't use presets — I’ll edit everything from scratch. I go into both Lightroom and Photoshop for every photo — I’ll go into Selective Color for just a hint of green or blue, all the subtle things. I think a lot of popular photographers have that same cinematic, kind of washed-out look. I don’t see as many people who do color work really well.
Again, it was hard at first. I’d shoot photos for shows, give 'em to the artist, and they wouldn’t use them. That happened more than once, and it got me asking, like, “Do I change my style?” But eventually I just stopped looking at exterior inspiration altogether. Too much inspo and your work just starts to looks like theirs, so I just try to keep to myself, get better with colors, and make my sh^t pop, so people are like, “Damn this looks crazy!”
“Too much inspiration and your work just starts to looks like theirs.”
What's the best concert you've ever shot, and why?
Gryffin at the Bill Graham Auditorium in San Francisco. I had done festival stuff like that before, but 8000 or so people, a sold-out show … it was crazy.
As far as life experience? MGK for sure. Gryffin’s cool, but I’d say MGK is definitely more of a rockstar, and I literally got the full rockstar experience: stayed at his hotel, went out to the club … in Bangkok, Thailand.
Well, how did that even come about? How’d you end up shooting that show?
Well, I know Jordan [Wozy], who used to do all of MGK’s touring back then. I saw the tour would be rolling through Thailand, so I emailed Jordan basically like, “Yo, I know you guys are going to be in Bangkok — I live in Long Beach but I'm out here for a year, so let me know if I can help you out in any way.” I never expected to hear back, but he was actually like, “Yeah dude, come out!” I lived in Phuket, which was a $90 round trip plane ticket to Bangkok, and I had a buddy there who I could stay with, so I parked my scooter at a 7-Eleven near the airport and got on a flight. Except, I was hitting Jordan up and he wasn’t hitting me back, even up ‘till the day of the show. Part of me thought he’d been drunk when he replied, regretted it later, and just ghosted me.
3 PM day of the show, I haven't heard anything, and then finally, literally an hour before doors, Jordan hits me back. I got to the address they were at and we just kind of shot this sh^t and then shot his show. I've actually been a huge fan of MGK for a long time though, so honestly I was kind of fangirling, but had to keep my sh^t together.
After the show, it’s almost midnight, and finally I just had to be like, “Alright I'm gonna head out — have fun tonight.” Said goodbye to everyone and then just as I’m walking out, Kels is coming down the hallway so I said something like, “Yo that was my first Machine Gun Kelly show and that sh^t was fire — appreciate you for having me out!” He turned around just like, “You're leaving? Do you want to come out with us?” I turned around, looked back at everyone in the room, and they’re just like, “Yeah.” So we start walking out the back [of the venue], but a bunch of fans found us and started bombarding us with photos. They were even taking photos of me, so the whole time his tour manager’s busting up laughing like, “I bet you didn't think this would be happening to you tonight!”
So my $90 investment paid off. [Laughs]
What's your favorite place that you’ve traveled?
One of them will forever in my life be top two and that’s Alaska. Anywhere in the world, though? I’ve been to at least 20 countries so I’d have to say Vietnam or Cambodia, just for the people alone. They were just so welcoming.
Why Alaska?
Well, I had just gotten got fired from my job at the time, and then four days later I'm in Alaska for three weeks fully paid shooting a travel documentary for the Alaska Board of Tourism. I was just taking photos behind the scenes, but … it was helicopter rides over glaciers, dog sledding, ice fishing at -38 f*cking degrees, seeing the Northern Lights where the sky turns green, going to a local Eskimo tribe where they made us food and gave us names… it was Anthony Bourdain type sh^t.
One of my favorite experiences was in Nome, Alaska. We rode our snow machines to the top of this massive hill where it was a full 360-degree view. It was 11:00 at night and the sun was just setting, and my buddy & I were drinking f*cking Pabst Blue Ribbon at midnight, at sunset, in the middle of f*cking nowhere … with this amazing ocean view.
How’d you get on that trip?
Literally I had no part in the travel documentary they were doing, but I was talking to my producer friend Devin, telling him about being fired from my job, and randomly he was like, “You know what, dude? I think we can budget one more in. You just have to pay for your flight out there.”
We went in the winter, though, so now I want to go back in the Fall, 'cause it was cold, bro. It got to minus 38 degrees. To put that in perspective, you have to keep your car plugged in — all the parking spots have these electrical things so the engines don’t freeze. Every day before you go out, you have to brace yourself. One day, I remember, it was negative 10 degrees in the morning and we were actually like, “Oh god this feels so good!' Even seeing the Northern Lights, it was negative 10 when we were shooting, 3:00 in the morning and the sky was just lit the f*ck up green … but our cameras froze over twice, so we had to run in and out of the car 'cause it was too cold to be out there. That experience will forever be in my heart.
“Get in front of people. The power of networking goes so much further than actual talent.”
What advice would you give to your younger photographer/videographer self?
Don't worry about what anyone else is doing, because that kind of thinking’s just a segue to a negative mindset.
Another piece of advice is to get in front of people. The power of networking goes so much further than actual talent.
For me, it’s been with these music videos, meeting new people on sets. My homie put me in contact with Daps (Migos’ director) for example, and we shot a little interview thing, and then afterwards, he was like, “Yeah I'm going to hit you up for music video edits.” That was just from meeting someone on set, and who knows if he’ll ever follow through, but the important thing is I set myself up for a potential opportunity.
So if I can give any advice, it's just to network. I used to send hundreds and hundreds of emails, and I had this mentality of, “If I send 100 and get 2 responses back, that’s great.” But if you meet someone, it's so much more powerful than an email could be. Trust me — I've had $10 to my name before, so there’ve been some rough times. I moved to Asia for that reason. Had I quit my job and then stayed in the US and tried to make it work I'm 99% sure that I would’ve run out of money and had to go back to a job. I went to Asia because I knew my money would last three times as long, and I could still go to these dope locations and just take photos and videos. Like, how could I not get better at that point? I didn't go for the travel itself — I literally went to get away from distractions here [in California], and really focus on getting better at photo and video