Local Photographer Is Featured In Chicago Influencers Campaign

Malik Zambezi, also known as MalikShotYou, is one of 11 influencers who are part of a Domu ad campaign. Photo provided by O-Street Brand Management + Consulting.
Malik Zambezi, also known as MalikShotYou, is one of 11 influencers who are part of a Domu ad campaign. Photo provided by O-Street Brand Management + Consulting.

Local Photographer Is Featured In Chicago Influencers Campaign

By Tia Carol Jones

Malik Zambezi, also known as MailkShotYou, likes authenticity and wants people to be themselves when he approaches them to take photos of them. He loves the rawness of humans, getting to know their story and who they are.

Zambezi is the visionary behind a recently launched Domu ad campaign, which features Chicago Influencers. He is also one of the influencers featured in the campaign. He said he told the influencers in the campaign to bring a prop so people can see what they do.

He did his self-portrait with a camera, so people would know that he is a photographer. Another influencer brought a baseball and a football so people would know his platform was about sports.

“My goal is just to make it as free and as Chicago as it can be,” he said.

Zambezi became interested in photography a couple of years ago and started taking photos of the people and places around him. He likes to strike up conversations with the people he meets and takes photos of, as a way of getting to know people’s stories. He has also used his platform and notoriety to host art walks in communities as a way to support Black owned businesses and expand awareness of those neighborhoods.

Zambezi said he partnered with Domu because it is a home-bred app based in Chicago for Chicago people.  He used it to find his own apartment. He said when his manager called to tell him that Domu wanted him for the campaign, he was ecstatic. It is Zambezi’s first brand campaign. Zambezi is known for his viral social media posts, but with this, his face will be on buses across the city. He said it is a beautiful thing to see, being a young Black boy from the south side of Chicago.

“I just think it’s a great thing for me to be represented in that way, for younger men like myself to see that it’s possible to do things like that,” he said.

Zambezi said he still feels like he’s at ground zero, doing what he’s been doing, meeting people and taking photos. He said he’s just doing what he likes to do and it has resulted in growing his social media platform and being recognized when out and about. He said he is still getting used to people approaching him and asking to take photos with him. He said he never thought he would have this level of notoriety, he has always just wanted to focus on the art.

Zambezi said he hopes that people see the campaign and that young people will see him and believe that they can do that, especially the young Black photographers across the city. He said he remembers being a young Black photographer, with a couple 100 followers.

He wants people to see that they can make it, because he is the proof. He said it is possible for people to elevate their personal brand and do something meaningful. He said he and the other influencers who participated in the campaign love it. He said it came out very well.

As for what’s next for Zambezi, he is going to keep taking photos and doing videos and using his platform, because it has been working really well for him. He recently took photos during the NBA All-Star Weekend where he photographed NBA legends. He said he wants to keep doing work in the community, as well as explore his brand and discover more stories nationally and internationally. He also wants to have an art exhibition in the near future.

To see more of Malik Zambezi’s work, follow him @MalikShotYou on Instagram.

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