Dylan Flores taking numerous photographs at the Taylor Swift concert in Denver. Courtesy photo.
TORRINGTON – Dylan Flores is a 21-year-old certified nursing assistant (CNA) who has spent a vast majority of his life right here in Goshen County.
Flores graduated from Torrington High School in 2019, and after recently being accepted into nursing school plans on becoming a fully registered nurse sometime in the very near future.
As Flores sat down with the Telegram to discuss other creative ventures, one could certainly see a future in health care for the young man. Still wearing his scrubs and yawning after a long night shift, Flores spoke with a tired, but positive and humorous tone that one would expect from a young, future nurse.
One would also guess while wearing a vibrant shirt, along with unique and intricate arm tattoos, this young CNA would perhaps have a creative, artistic side.
They would certainly be correct.
Although Flores is passionate and ambitious about healthcare yes, he in fact happens to be an aspiring photographer who is skilled at portraits, and has a deep interest in concerts in particular.
Flores works as a freelance photographer for a publishing company in Denver by the name of Music Marauders, and has already been able to add several high-profile concert shows to his resume. The most recent of these shows happened to be Taylor Swift this last week.
“Concert photography is something I’ve wanted to get into, and it’s not that easy considering the area we are in,” Flores said. “I photograph concerts as much as I can because this isn’t the first [time]. I take as many opportunities to photograph as many concerts as I can. I love concerts as a whole, as well as photography. Putting those two aspects together just makes it very fun for me and just peaks my interest. I love being able to capture the best moments in a photo that are hard to explain in words. Photography is such a different form of art, and it is fun for me to be able to tell a part of a story for the artist by capturing that through a camera.”
Flores noted although getting to professionally photograph a Taylor Swift concert was quite the achievement, the process in doing so started off slow.
“We had reached out to her team in April and hadn’t heard anything back until the tenth,” Flores said. “When they had responded, they originally asked what our publication does, and if it just for reviewers or photographers. We told them that we do everything essentially, and it took them a few days to respond. But then they emailed me a whole itinerary of where to go to get my photo pass and all this jazz, so obviously I took that as a yes.”
It should be noted that the list of itineraries, credentials and other items sent to Flores from Swift’s management is not given to just anyone.
“It usually isn’t that easy getting a photo pass,” Flores stated. “It just sounds easy when that’s how it went, but a photo pass is where we were able to take pictures up close near the barricade, really close to the stage. It was only for the first three songs which was around 15 minutes. They also allowed me to photograph the opening acts. I got to photograph the show the first night, and then the second and final night I got to sit in row two behind the stage with some of my best friends.”
Flores obviously wasn’t the only photographer in attendance at the concert. Although he already has extensive knowledge and experience with concert photography, Flores took the opportunity to learn from other professional photographers in stride.
“One of the best things was being able to see the other photographers and their kind of style,” Flores said. “Just how they were photographing her and the opening acts, I think that was pretty cool. We only got a certain length from the stage that we could shoot from. Her stage was huge, and we could only shoot from the back from such a small space that 10 or 15 of us could work with. It was fun seeing how everyone’s photos were going to come out considering the length of space we had.”
Although one would argue Flores has endless potential as far as creating a successful career in concert photography, he is well aware that such a venture is challenging, and nothing is going to come easy.
“It’s not something that can just be handed to you. I have tried to work my butt off to shoot a show this big before, and it’s just something that you have to work hard for. I know it’s cliché, but if there’s one thing to get out of this is you can do anything you put your mind to. I was just looking at my Facebook from five years ago, and I saw a post where I was being talked down to about my photography. It’s just a cool thing to look back, and now photograph one of the biggest stars in the world.”
But just like with any endeavor, goal or dream, Flores made sure to point out that any success doesn’t come without help. Most of the time it involves a large amount of support and sacrifice from those closest to us.
“It helps to chase your dreams when you have such a loving and caring group of family and friends, who are always encouraging you to do what you love and to not stop doing it. Specifically, my mom, dad, grandma and best friends. Anyone who has always believed in me ever since I’ve started photography.”
