A York student who used to have One Direction posters on her wall has been working as a photographer for Louis Tomlinson on his latest tour.
Lily Ajaib has taken pictures and video of Louis in more than 70 cities in 13 different European countries so far.
And all the while she’s been completing the final year of her Film Production & Professional Practice degree at York College.
The opportunity for Lily to work directly with Louis in cities such as Barcelona, Madrid, Lyon and Munich came after she had impressed by photographing support act Only the Poets on his tour.
She went on to picture Louis performing and in relaxed shots away from the stage – a genuine bucket list moment ticked off by Lily at the age of 20.
The former One Direction megastar’s How Did We Get Here? tour began in Germany in March and will finish in Brisbane in October.
“I went to six shows on his last tour four years ago, just because I enjoyed it, but I also took small digital cameras with me and took photos,” she said.
“In terms of the big dream and somebody I had photos of on my wall, then it was always Louis, so I had to compose myself a little bit when I met him!
“Doing a tour with somebody like him, the scale of it is so big, but you still have to be very normal about it and, being the photographer for the artist, you need to have a good relationship with them and get along.
“What I’ve found out, though, is although they might be big and famous, they’re generally very normal human beings. They just do a really strange job and you have to blend in with that.
“It’s so exciting but so work heavy as well and you have to make sure you’re delivering for the management team.”
The work is varied. Sometimes Lily will be asked to use an iPhone for raw looking footage and, on other occasions, she will be operating a £5,000 camera as part of a multi-camera shoot.
Lily, from Wheldrake, has also worked for the likes of Bring Me The Horizon and taken pictures of Billie Eilish.
Earlier this year, she also worked on Robbie Williams’ tour with his support act The Lottery Winners and she has just finished touring Europe again with American pop-punk singer-songwriter Taylor Acorn.
Life on the road has pros and cons.
“It’s luxury in a way, but then you’re also sleeping in a bunk on a bus with 14 other people, so it can feel like a hostel and the 19-hour drives are the hard bit!
“But I don’t like being sat at home, so I love it. I really like doing shows in Munich, because the German music scene is amazing. I also liked Oslo and Scandinavia.”
Lily has managed combined this hectic lifestyle with completing the final year of her degree studies.
She’s been supported her tutor Josh Roberts, who has taught her throughout her five years at college.
“I’ve managed to hand in all my assignments and just dedicated certain times in the year to my degree work,” Lily explained. “Josh has allowed me to go out and do things, but says, ‘Just make sure you get this done before you go’.
“It’s been unbelievably difficult and I wouldn’t recommend it, but it means I can go straight into industry when I leave college.
“Josh has genuinely been the most unbelievably supportive person I could have ever had.
“Him encouraging me is probably more than 75% of the reason why I’m doing what I am now.”
Offering advice to anybody who would like to also work as a music industry videographer and photographer, Lily added: “It sounds so silly, but just show up in the right places. Then, if you’re in that environment, look for the sound engineers or tour managers.
“Talk to them and be willing to listen. You’ll find that 90 per cent of people are way more friendly than you perhaps thought.
“Most people just want to help, so be social, work as hard as you can and be dedicated. If you can make friends and make yourself available and useful, even if it’s just offering coffee, it goes a long way.”
