The magazine Up by Forbes recently profiled entertainment, portrait, and fashion photographer Nino Muñoz for its latest cover story. In his Q&A with editor Diana-Florina Cosmin, Nino touches on everything from three assignments that will stay with him forever to his early days riding his bike around New York City and shooting photos…

One of your first professional assignments was shooting a fashion story for Vogue, with Gisele Bündchen. How did you go from young aspiring photographer to securing such an enviable job?

Gisele and I were already friends at the time we did the Vogue story together. She saw something in me, and she believed in me as a photographer.

At the beginning, I used to do a lot of reportage photography in New York City. I would grab my camera and ride around on my BMX bicycle and photograph people, so it felt natural to photograph Gisele.

Still, it was very scary because suddenly I was being flown to Paris to do a shoot for British Vogue. I thought, “How am I getting away with this? I’m just a guy who photographs people on the street.” I found confidence within by telling myself that it’s all the same thing; there’s no difference between photographing Gisele in Paris or someone I see on a street in New York.

Looking back on your career, what were the three moments that you would consider your big breaks?

Number 1: When Katie Grand, who was the editor of Pop magazine at the time, asked me to do a story on up-and-coming artists in New York City.
Number 2: When I shot Gisele for British Vogue.
Number 3: When Wallpaper magazine sent me to do an international reportage shoot with local people in three different countries, including Greece, Chile, and Brazil.

And I have a number 4, because it all happened at the same time: Arena magazine started booking me to shoot covers. I had seven or eight covers in one year—including Leo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, Beyonce, Daniel Craig, Kanye West, Keira Knightley, and Gisele

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