In the late 2000s I was living and working in a large east coast city and enjoying success as a photographer of architecture and interiors for builders and designers. I loved my work and I liked where I lived but I didn’t love the place. Then I visited New Orleans between a winning football playoff game and a winning Super Bowl. The city was ON FIRE and I was hooked. I had found a town and people I loved. I flew home and packed a moving van and got back to New Orleans as fast as I could.

About a month after moving into my little apartment in Uptown, I received a call from Google. The world’s 4th largest company had “Googled” my portfolio, loved my work, and invited me to become their first business photographer in Louisiana. I said yes. By the end of the year I was one of Google’s Top-10 photographers worldwide. That phone call changed my life. It not only gave me a great job; it also gave me an opportunity to help the owners of all kinds of businesses and to have an important role within the beautiful spicy texture of one of the world’s most fascinating places. For over a decade now - and still going strong - I start out helping genuinely nice people welcome the world inside their business with a 360° tour. Often I am who they trust when they need pro photos and videos or marketing inspiration and strategy or they just want to hang out and talk about what’s important to them.

I would love to know what’s important to you.
- Stephen Young

Fast forward to 2023…

In January I started off the new year shooting my largest Handsome Hotels™ project so far - every square inch of the famed Hotel Monteleone of New Orleans’s French Quarter (see below).
February saw another great carnival season and Mardi Gras but the real excitement for me was my upcoming surprise visit to Italy for 3 crazy beautiful weeks between my birthday (late March) and Easter. In August 2014 my friend Bill sent me a text msg that would change my life. He said, “come meet me in the Quarter. I just met this really cool couple visiting from Italy and we’re going to see Gal & the Honky Tonks perform.” That’s a phone message that you don’t turn down. That young Italian couple and their families would soon become my second (adopted) family in Parma, Italy. In March I flew to Bologna and took the train to Parma the day before my birthday to watch as my brother lost his shiz when he called to wish me happy birthday and realized I was standing 20 feet away from him.
I spent 3 perfect weather weeks of family, friends, food, and Ferrari Formula 1 in the place and with the people that I will spend the rest of my life. Until then, every spring you can find me and my Leica in my future European home.