BALTIMORE — Elijah Agurs, a student-photographer at UMBC, is using his camera to leave a mark on the world.
He's made a career of shooting high-profile events like the Olympic Trials and World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
By getting hand-picked by top clients and brands around the country.
"I'm blessed to have the opportunities that I've been able to have and I'm just elated to look back and see some of the images that I've created."
It started in 2020 when he first picked up a camera, shooting any and everything.
"I didn't have a lot of experience shooting anything crazy, let alone even seeing a professional track athlete."
It wouldn't take long before he was noticed.
New Generation Track and Field, a camp that covers track athletes, flew him across the country to Oregon after he applied to their camp.
He was one of 10 people selected for the all-expense covered trip.
"It really fostered a creative mind and really understanding that the sky's the limit."
Here he got to shoot Olympic Champions Noah Lyles and Sha'Carri Richardson. His photo of Richardson went viral.
"One image that I'm super proud of is the image of Sha'Carri's hand going into the block starts that kind of went pretty viral on social media," Agurs said.
"She's her own person and she's creating a legacy in track and field for herself, and that's something I'm really happy to put on display."
Another one of his favorite images is of Lyles holding up three fingers to show he has three gold medals.
He's able to do this while pursuing a major in photo and cinema and a minor in entrepreneurship.
One of Agurs' professors says his passion is going to lead to some interesting work in the future.
"I feel like Elijah isn't afraid to take those risks and bring in that artistic sense to his photography and his work in general,” Bryan O'Neill, Agurs' professor, said.
“I think it says he’s an artist, so you can’t really be boxed in. I feel like there’s the potential there to bleed out into all these other disciplines and bring that artistic sense to everything that he does,” he added.
Agurs has covered things like NCAA Championships, the New York Marathon and multiple USA Championships.
He's even worked with big brands like Under Armour, but he has his sights set on one goal... the Olympics.
"It's kind of a dream come true, so it kind of checks off that box a little bit. I think that shooting at that stage would allow my work to be more impactful to the general public because the general public doesn't really know a World Championships like that,” Agurs said.
Despite the success, he wants to be treated like everyone else and not celebrity.
"At the end of the day, I'm still Elijah Agurs and I come into this building every other day to do work, just like every other college student," Agurs added.
To check out more of Agurs' work, click here.
