On a beautiful, late fall day, at a bench in a Lower East Side park, the sun gently fell on her face as she explained to the Bushwick Daily video crew how she came about to becoming a world class rock’n’roll photographer. “Can we take a short break so that I can faint a little?” I asked the crew because the story of how Katarina Benzova broke into the photography world is pure magic. Once she was just a tall, pretty girl from a small town in Slovakia; today she is the exclusive tour photographer for Guns N’ Roses, and a photographer of, you know, pretty much every single rock’n’roll legend alive from Kiss to Aerosmith to Courtney Love. We’re all in luck because Kat shared some words of wisdom on her gear, mentors, and lots of advice on making it BIG in photography! Read on and watch the interview!
Her mother wanted her to be a figure skater but Kat had other plans. At the age of 14 she left her mountainous hometown for Tokyo on an international modeling contract with Elite Models. She quickly gained international acclaim in the fashion world, appeared on several covers of magazines, and traveled the world. As she traveled, she would take photos just for fun on a little point-and-shoot camera. But the change of fate was in the air.
