He’s shot legends like Buddy Guy and Tom Waits and chart-toppers like Method Man and Lil’ Wayne. More recently, he stopped by Columbia to give students a taste of the professional world, and it looks like the college will be seeing much more of him in the future.

Professional celebrity photographer Christian Lantry spoke to students in the Ferguson Auditorium, located in the Alexandroff Campus Center, 600 S. Michigan Ave., on April 15 as a part of the Art Works photography lecture series. He also visited the Portfolio Center in the Wabash Campus Building, 623 S. Wabash Ave., on April 16 to appraise student portfolios and provide input on their work. He will return to Columbia in the fall as a professor in the Photography Department.

The Art Works series is hosted by the Photography Department and the Portfolio Center to show students how the industry works and prepare them for their careers after graduation.

“Students will get a much better sense of how photographers really function in a professional setting,” Portfolio Center Director Tim Long said about the benefits of the lecture series. “Photography, like many industries, has lots of little niches in it, and Christian is working in one of those niches. He’s not doing food photography or photojournalism. He’s doing music industry photography. That’s his specialty, and that’s how many successful photographers tend to work.”

Lantry has worked as a music photographer for more than 12 years. In that time, he shot artists like Brian McKnight, T-Pain and Common, although he said some of his favorite photo shoots were with more classic artists.

“For me, honestly, I love when I get to meet someone like Al Green or Quincy [Jones], someone like that,” he said. “Some of the older people [such as] Tom Waits, I’ve worked with him twice. That was really amazing for me. Maybe they’re not the most well-known people, but they tend to really epitomize what I think a true musician or a true artist is.”

Lantry’s fall class will focus on teaching students to work as music photographers based on his background in the business.

“I’ll take a group of students, and I want to actually give them a taste of what it’s like to work in the industry,” he said. “I’m going to get together with a couple of indie labels … and the idea is to basically approach them and say, ‘Listen, give us an artist, a new artist that maybe you’re developing, and let us create the creative [campaign] around them.’”

Lantry offered students advice on the kind of work that comprises a good portfolio and what would, in his experience, most likely catch potential employers’ interests.

“I would rather see in a portfolio four or five just amazing photographs that either, one, tell a story, or two, have a cohesive vision, than 30 mediocre photographs,” he said. “I think that’s so much stronger, and I think you’re more likely to get hired off of those four or five really amazing photographs that really tell people what you’re about, rather than some giant, grandiose portfolio.”

Elizabeth Ernst, associate professor in the Photography Department and coordinator of the department’s studio program, expressed a similar opinion.

“It’s not about their greatest hits or greatest hits from various classes at Columbia,” Ernst said. “It’s about a cohesion in terms of their work to sort of present their vision, and it has to be professionally printed and presented.”

The Art Works lecture series was started as a commercially-focused alternative to many fine arts events at Columbia. The idea was to give photography students information about how to make a living with their art.

“Students are very eager for this kind of contact with outside professionals,” Ernst said. “They also are eager for this information about, you know, how can they pay back these huge loans. So we’re sort of trying to present people as examples of, ‘This is what can happen and these are the standards in the industry, and this is what you need to think about if you want to go out and participate in that world.’”

Lantry said though many young photographers want to move up in the industry as quickly as they can, he would advise them to slow down and learn as much as they can as they work their way up.

“Don’t be in a hurry,” he said. “I think everyone wants to get from A to Z immediately, and I don’t think that’s the right focus to have. … I think it’s better to take your time, and be true to yourself, and be true to your art and move forward.”