Who am I? That's the glorious question. My name is Leah Falkowski. I'm currently 22 years young and living just outside of Buffalo, NY. I am a freelance photographer & merchandiser who loves to live life day by day.

I guess you can say I've been a part of the music industry since 2002. I started bringing my camera to shows I would attend and tried to obtain photo passes whenever possible but wasn't sure of the process. I graduated high school in 2003 and decided to leave everything that I had known and move to Washington, DC to go to American University. My degree was in Communication: Visual Media with a minor in Marketing. Once moving to DC I finally started to find my niche in life. I joined the Student Union Board and made some amazing friends who started to show me the ways of the industry. I also joined The Talon, the school yearbook, in which I found myself photographing the various events on campus and around the city. I knew the first time I photographed The Ataris at The Tavern on campus that this was what I wanted to do. My photographs from that show were also featured in our campus newspaper, The Eagle. I finally had the equipment and means to start my career since I already had the drive!

Sophomore year I met my friend Ashley Malandre and I began co-hosting rawKISS radio. rawKISS radio was a three hour radio weekly radio show that featured punk, emo, rock and indie music. The show streamed online at WVAU.org and we had a strong myspace/internet following. Thru rawKISS, I began setting up radio interviews with a variety of artists including The Academy Is..., Motion City Soundtrack, Midtown and Gym Class Heroes. We also loved to feature unknown and up-and-coming artists, in which I spent hours on myspace looking for "new" talent.

During my Junior year at American, I interned at the Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies (AARC) which deals with obtaining royalties for artists. My time there was spent well, I was able to learn about the other side of the industry as well as enjoy what I was doing and who I was working with. I also started working with a variety of promotion and booking companies within the DC/VA/MD area.

I've been involved in street and online teams for a variety of artists and labels since 2004. I've primarily worked for Atlantic Records but have worked with Drive-Thru Records and Fueled By Ramen as well. I have started and ran multiple street teams including currently indie artist Chris Nathan.

As you can tell, I've dabbled in pretty much all of the aspects of the industry: photography, marketing, publicity, production, booking, merchandising, and royalties.

Ideally where do I see myself? I want to be the next Jim Marshall. I not only want to sit on the sidelines of music history, but I want to be the one to capture it. I love being on the road and traveling. I've worked countless merchandise tables. I've lived in a van with four stinky boys, photographing them every night (and day). Oh, I almost forgot to mention, I'm currently for hire! ;)