Today we’d like to introduce you to Ricardo Collier.
Hi Ricardo, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
It all started when two passions met, photography and food, although it took several years. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to capture and hold all the beauty I saw through my eyes, make it permanent. Of course, we have our memory, but to remember a moment, a place, through a picture is like you revisit this time/place at any moment. I was born in 1990, during my teen years (10-18) there were no smartphones, the first iPhone was released in 2007 when I was 17, I didn’t have the tools nor the world had Instagram to become a foodie. During this time my pictures were of landscapes, basically, every time I went to the beach, mountains, different countries, I took pictures with a regular film camera, took a while to see the result of your photograph. As time passed, technology advanced & the internet reached the boom, it was all set for me. I had great phones with cameras and more importantly Instagram (the main platform for foodies). Ever since I can remember I have been a food fanatic, an enthusiast. I moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina when I was 20, this really opened my mind, absorbed all these different cultures and obviously, I was presented with this amazing variety of food. My phone started to be my best friend, the camera. I started taking pictures of the food, the places, the drinks and once I saw it in my camera roll, I felt like “Wow, I want to eat this again, it looks so yummy!” Ever since then, I always try to make food as attractive and mouthwatering as possible. During my time in Argentina, I always traveled during the holidays to Raleigh to visit my family, they moved around the same time I moved to Buenos Aires. I started to get to know Raleigh, the restaurants, the culture. My dad likes to go out a lot, so this gave me the opportunity to visit different places even when my visit was 1-2 months. My family has been of great support for this project, so it has been easy to come up with new ideas and execute them. At 28 I moved permanently to Raleigh, to continue my studies, ever since then We Hungry Raleigh has unified my two passions.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’m still at the beginning of my journey, We Hungry Raleigh has so much more to give to the community. It’s human nature to look to your left/right, at times I’ve felt that there is so great content out there, people with lots of followers and sometimes this can make you self-conscious, like “my blog is not popular, there are thousands better than mine.” These kinds of thoughts are the most common among people who work on social media, so this was a struggle of mine. In the end, this just gave me strength and positivity to see where I can go and what I can do better to make my blog as important and relevant as others.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We Hungry Raleigh’s main focus is to support local businesses, to show their amazing food to the audience. Instagram is our main platform, but we also review places in Google and Yelp. Nowadays when you get invited to a place or just have the craving for a type of food, you go straight to your phone, what is more, helpful than pictures and reviews? WHR’s pictures are set to show food in its rawest, most mouthwatering, and impacting way possible. We are at the vanguard of what’s going on in the community, currently, videos are having a boom because of Tiktok, so this has been added to our catalog too. I’ve had the opportunity to meet foodies from different countries and from the area, and we all share the same view: support local businesses and make food as attractive as it can be.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Perseverance, without it, there would be no food bloggers.
Contact Info:
- Email: wehungryraleigh@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wehungryraleigh/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wehungryraleigh/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=cBOz2pQfJqk4xdRNeaUoeA&utm_source=ishare https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=cBOz2pQfJqk4xdRNeaUoeA&utm_source=ishare
- Other: https://goo.gl/maps/qzG8cmDHaX76htFT9 https://goo.gl/maps/qzG8cmDHaX76htFT9
