AUSTIN, Texas — To understand what drives Carlos Gallegos, you have to understand what he’s lost.
“I lost so many photos when I uploaded a phone from middle school,” Gallegos said.
It’s a funny story now. But you can feel the pain in his voice when he recounts what happened.
“I wanted to upgrade so bad and they were like, ‘You don’t have a backup,” he said. “I was like, I don’t give a damn give me the phone.”
Gallegos was a junior in college at the time, so he lost nearly a decade worth of pictures.
“That’s what stemmed my passion for making memories and keeping memories,” Gallegos said. “It taught me that documenting my life was so crucial.”
The 29-year-old always had a knack for taking pictures but it wasn’t what he was destined to do. Gallegos grew up in Houston, the eldest son of Mexican immigrants.
“There was never a question, I was going to go to college no matter what,” Gallegos said.
He wanted to go to college. But it also came with expectations as Gallegos is the oldest among his siblings and extended family. He was supposed to set the example.
Gallegos fell in love with student development at the University of Houston after joining the orientation team at the university.
“I wanted them (students) to really understand they could achieve and do absolutely anything they wanted to,” he said.
He began leaning towards a degree in higher education leadership and policy. After getting his bachelor's at U of H, he went to the University of Texas at Austin to pursue his master’s.
“I was going to be the guy who was going to be president of a university,” Gallegos said.
In his first semester at UT, Gallegos was achieving higher grades than he did during his undergrad, but his passion was fading.
“I learned the more successful I get the jobs get further and further away from what I fell in love with which was student development,” Gallegos said.
He’s started to lose track of what the point was and began dealing with depression. It was around this time Gallegos decided to buy a camera, using photography as a way to get through the tough time.
During his third semester, he was working on a group project in his higher education law class. Realizing he had no desire to learn the content, he slammed his laptop shut and told his classmates he was dropping out.
Doing so meant Gallegos lost his graduate assistantship in housing, which provided free housing and food.
“It’s a weird time in my life because I’ve never looked for a job because I needed a job,” Gallegos said.
He started working for a gym in East Austin, which was relatively new at the time and didn't have much social media content. He offered to shoot content for no extra pay.
“I want to do it for free, I’m still learning,” he told Lift ATX owner Daniel Hinojosa.
Gallegos was working for Door Dash for extra cash but quit after a traumatic experience. He pivoted to booking clients as a way to replace the lost income. Eventually he was offered a contract position for five months and he resigned from his job at Lift ATX. He expected to fill out his photography portfolio and live comfortably on a reasonable salary, but as quickly as he got the offer, it was canceled.
“Now I don’t have a job again,” Gallegos said.
He started booking more serious clients at more serious prices. He was making more friends in more spaces. One of his clients was Lift ATX, for whom he shoot merchandise when needed. He informed his former boss, Hinojosa, that he was getting offers in Houston. One fateful day, while Gallegos was working out, Hinojosa pulled him aside to ask him a question.
“Give me a number,” Gallegos recalls Hinojosa saying to him. “How much would it cost for you to do what you’re going to do over there, over here?”
Gallegos researched the position extensively and then made a pitch during an interview with Lift ATX.
He was hired as the gym’s first media director. It was a moment of validation for Gallegos that every decision he made was the right one.
It’s just a chapter in a story still being written. Gallegos’ dream is to be financially free to make memories when, where and how he wants. Most will agree he did achieve one thing that was expected of him. He’s set quite an example for his family.
