Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Watkins.
Mark, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’ve had a passion for photography for as long as I can remember, and I’ve never been shy in front of a camera. Growing up, my parents recorded every birthday party, every Christmas morning, and so many of the moments in between on VHS. Our house is filled with photo albums, making it almost impossible to forget a memory. Looking back, I realize those tapes and photographs didn’t just preserve memories. They shaped the way I see the world and taught me the importance of documenting life’s moments.
I think growing up surrounded by home videos is also what gave me my love for the late ‘90s and early 2000s aesthetic. There’s something about the grainy footage, the imperfect framing, and the feeling that those moments were captured simply because they mattered. That nostalgia continues to influence the way I create today. More than chasing perfection, I want my content to feel like a memory someone can come back to years later.
As I got older, my love for photography only grew stronger. During my junior year of high school, I started my own photography business and created an Instagram account to showcase my work. What began as a creative outlet quickly turned into opportunities to collaborate with friends on photoshoots and eventually photograph senior portraits. For the first time, I realized something I genuinely loved could also become something meaningful to others.
After high school, I enrolled in college with the intention of transferring into a photography program. Then the pandemic changed everything. School, which had already felt more like an obligation than a passion, began to feel like an ankle weight holding me back. I made the decision to take a gap year that eventually turned into three, and looking back, it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. That time gave me the space to experience life from perspectives I never would’ve discovered had I stayed focused on a future I wasn’t even sure I wanted.
Around that same time, I began creating content centered around pop culture. As I kept posting, it naturally evolved into documenting my own life, sharing the everyday experiences, places, and moments that have now become the foundation of my content.
As my gap year stretched into three, watching my friends and classmates graduate wasn’t easy. There were moments when I felt behind, lost, and unsure of where my own path was leading. But I kept reminding myself that everyone runs a different race, and success doesn’t follow the same timeline for everyone.
During that season of uncertainty, I learned something that changed everything: I’m at my happiest when I’m creating. There’s something indescribable about documenting life’s moments, pairing them with the songs that have become the soundtrack of my life, and weaving everything together through editing. It’s a feeling of purpose I’ve never found anywhere else.
As I continued creating and sharing my work, opportunities began to open doors I never expected. Through consistently showing up, refining my skills, and genuine networking, I received my first opportunity to manage social media for clients. What started as creating content evolved into developing strategy and leading a brand’s digital presence. Every day brings something new to learn, and that’s exactly what I love about it. Today, I oversee City Burger’s social media presence through content creation, creative strategy, influencer partnerships, and community engagement. It’s given me the opportunity to blend creativity with marketing while helping brands tell stories that resonate with people.
Currently, there’s nothing I’d rather do with my life than document it through my own perspective. Being able to capture moments, tell stories, and creatively express how I experience the world is what fuels me every day. It’s more than creating content. It’s preserving memories, capturing emotions, and finding beauty in everyday life. My hope is that through my work, others feel inspired to slow down, appreciate the stories unfolding around them, and create memories worth holding onto.
To this day, I’m constantly teaching myself new techniques, experimenting with new ideas, and challenging myself to make each piece of content better than the last. I don’t think that pursuit of growth will ever stop, and I hope it never does. At the end of the day, my goal isn’t just to create content. It’s to create something that makes people feel the way those old VHS tapes still make me feel.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.
One of my biggest struggles was feeling like I was falling behind. After deciding to take a gap year during the pandemic, I watched that one year turn into three while my friends and classmates graduated and started their careers. There were plenty of moments where I questioned whether I was making the right decision or if I had somehow missed my opportunity.
Choosing a creative career also comes with its own challenges. Social media often highlights everyone’s biggest wins while hiding the countless hours of work, rejection, and self-doubt that happen behind the scenes. There have been times when I’ve compared my journey to someone else’s, struggled with creative burnout, or questioned whether I was good enough to keep pursuing this path.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that comparison steals your ability to appreciate your own journey. Once I stopped worrying about where everyone else was and focused on becoming a better creator than I was yesterday, opportunities started finding me.
Not every idea works, and not every season feels productive. But every project teaches me something new, and every experience helps me grow both creatively and personally.
Looking back, I don’t see those moments of uncertainty as setbacks anymore. I see them as necessary parts of the journey that shaped my perspective, strengthened my resilience, and made me appreciate every opportunity I’ve earned.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My work is centered around storytelling through content. At its core, I document my life and the world around me from my own perspective, whether that’s discovering a new restaurant, going to an event, sharing something I’m passionate about, or simply capturing an everyday moment that I think is worth remembering.
I specialize in lifestyle content, videography, and social media. Over time, I’ve also expanded into social media management and creative marketing, which has allowed me to take what I’ve learned as a creator and apply it to brands. Today, I serve as the Head of Social for City Burger, where I combine content creation, creative strategy, influencer partnerships, and community engagement to help shape the brand’s presence online.
I think what I’m most known for is making everyday life feel exciting. I love taking something that could seem ordinary and finding a way to make someone want to experience it for themselves. A lot of that comes through in my editing, music choices, visual style, and the nostalgic influence my content embodies. I want my content to feel less like an advertisement and more like a memory.
What I’m most proud of is how much I’ve grown without having a traditional roadmap to follow. I’ve taught myself photography, editing, social media, and creative strategy through years of experimenting, creating, making mistakes, and trying again. I’ve gone from having a camera and an Instagram account in high school to creating content professionally and working with some of my favorite brands.
I think what sets me apart is that I genuinely care about the feeling behind what I create. I’m not interested in creating something just because it’s trending. I want there to be a reason behind it. Whether I’m creating for myself or a brand, I try to bring a perspective that feels personal, intentional, and authentic. Ultimately, I want people to see my work and feel something, whether that’s nostalgia, excitement, inspiration, or simply the urge to go out and make a memory of their own!
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
One of my favorite childhood memories was having a disposable camera. Whenever I would hang out with friends or family, I would take pictures of everything. Then I’d drop the film off at Walgreens and anxiously wait for it to be developed so I could finally see the memories I’d captured. I loved the anticipation of getting those photos back and being able to relive those moments all over again.
That feeling of being able to revisit a memory has stayed with me. I would watch my parents’ wedding video over and over again, not just because it was their wedding, but because my granny and granddaddy were in it talking. Hearing their voices made me feel connected to them in a way that photographs couldn’t quite capture. They’re both no longer here, and I never had the chance to meet my grandfather, but i’m always reminded of how much I look like him and how much he would’ve loved me.
I think that’s a big part of why documenting life means so much to me today. I’ve experienced firsthand how powerful a photograph or video can become years after it was created. Something that might have felt like an ordinary moment when it was captured can eventually become something priceless. That’s what I want my own content to do. I want to create things that allow me, and hopefully the people around me, to look back someday and feel like we’re right back in that moment.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markkwatkins?igsh=NXM2cTZzYXp3aGtz&utm_source=qr
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@markkwatkins?_r=1&_t=ZP-98prCU7tPcE
