Marcus Smith “phocuses” on adding value to last a lifetime

Marcus Smith, ’25, has always loved nature.

He sees the outdoors as a retreat, a place to recharge and recenter himself. 

Nature is also one of the many reasons he left his home in Connecticut. Lehigh was a place to explore, a calming collegiate ecosystem surrounded by nature.

But most importantly to Smith, it’s a place with wildlife.

His passion and love for the environment made it feel natural to step into Lehigh as an earth and environmental sciences major. 

From early on, he was a member of Lehigh’s environmental programs — the Eco-Reps and the Office of Sustainability, the latter of which he was a work-study photography assistant for and was tasked with shooting photos at sustainability events.

He said this role was the creative breakthrough he needed.

While wandering campus during his first year, he locked eyes with a hawk perched on a fence near Richards House. Despite having never picked up a camera before, he knew he was meant to snap a picture of the moment. 

With no gear, Smith pulled out his phone and slowly inched closer until he was about five feet away from the hawk. He said he had never been this close to an animal before.

As he held his finger on the photo button, the hawk flashed open its wings, exponentially growing in size. In a moment’s notice, it took off, streaking an array of black and brown speckles through the sky.

“They’re a lot bigger when their wings spread,” Smith laughs. “It flies (and) scares the absolute crap out of me.”

Despite the shock, Smith clicked the shutter.

The result: a perfect still frame shot of the hawk with its wings spread as it took flight.

Later, he posted the photo to his Instagram and tagged Lehigh’s official account. It caught the attention of Christa Neu, a multimedia content producer for the Office of Communications and Public Affairs and adjunct professor.

After his self-proclaimed “hawk moment,” Smith let his photography wings fly.

Four years after his interaction with Lehigh’s mascot in the wild, Smith has used his value-adding mentality to kickstart a successful photography career working for the university, himself and most recently, the future generation.

Neu said she and her coworker Lindsay Lebresco, executive director of content creation for Lehigh’s Office of Communications, took quick notice of Smith’s photographic skillset.

“I remember (Lebresco) jumped up and shouted, ‘Christa Neu, meet your future intern! Look at this picture,’” Neu said.

Smith became just that. After multiple interactions with Neu and Lebresco, he became an intern for the Office of Communications and Public Affairs, and this is where his photography career took off.

Marcus Smith, ’25, is pictured with Christa Neu, multimedia content producer for the Office of Communications and Public Affairs and adjunct professor on Lehigh’s front lawn in 2024. Since becoming close while he was an intern for the Office of Communications and Public Affairs, Smith said he considers Neu his “Lehigh mom.” (Courtesy of Marcus Smith)

Although reluctant initially to be tasked with creating TikTok videos for the office, Smith said his approach of always adding value to his opportunities pushed him to deliver a variety of shots and find how he could align with the university’s goals while shaping an experience that aligned with his own.

“I then kind of found my place in photography,” Smith said. “I would go out, take a bunch of photos of everything and give it to them.”

His love of nature pushed him to deliver campus beauty content, photographing what his eyes captured, from the Lehigh deer to the snowfall that gracefully draped a white blanket across every inch of campus. He also kept stock photography, made graphics of new bus routes due to his friendships with the drivers and helped with admissions content.

But of all the photos and videos he’s shot for the Office of Communications and Public Affairs, he said his most memorable was pitching investments towards FPV drones to simulate what it means to be a Mountain Hawk, aligning with the university’s goals. 

Wanting to create an association for Lehigh’s mascot and students, Smith earned a drone license and filmed bird’s-eye-view footage of the campus to replicate the feeling of soaring through Lehigh, working meticulously to create a workflow in conjunction with Federal Aviation Administration and Lehigh University Police Department protocol. 

Even with the value he brought through his craft, many saw Smith’s friendly persona as his best attribute.

Holly Fasching, ‘26, also a student photographer, said Smith has a consistently welcoming presence that makes people feel comfortable. She also said she considers him the closest thing to a brother.

“I would walk up and down the hill, and I just remember seeing this guy with a crazy head of hair, multiple cameras strapped to his backpack at all times, and he had the biggest, friendliest smile you’ve ever seen,” she said. 

Later on, Fasching also joined the office as an intern, and they formed a “photo family” with Neu. From there, Fasching and Smith shared a single camera and lens — a Sony A7 IV and 70-200 lens — between their jobs, a camera they would later jokingly call their “child.” 

The trio’s relationship eventually blossomed, with Neu taking on the role of the “Lehigh mom.” 

Neu said she has provided the two with photography, freelance and real life advice, taking on a mentor role. She said this is a testament to the collaborative culture she developed while studying at Syracuse University. 

“I had a lot of good mentors that I probably didn’t deserve through different phases of my career,” Neu said. “So, when I give them advice, it’s because I know I always tell them, ‘You’re gonna pay that forward someday — or hire me.’”

In return, Fasching and Smith provided a close bond and support. The two helped Neu when she taught the journalism department’s visual communications course for the first time. Neu said Fasching and Smith told a white lie to Allen Kingsbury, Lehigh’s senior media production specialist, about the two being her children so they could be in attendance to support her during the first class.

Even after he and Fasching left the office, Smith said the family relationship has stayed intact. The three have worked together to build each other up, even as freelancers searching for gigs.

Marcus Smith, ’25, Holly Fasching, ’26, and Christa Neu, multimedia content producer for the Office of Communications and Public Affairs and adjunct professor, are pictured on Lehigh’s front lawn for the fall club expo on Aug. 28, 2023. The three became a “photo family” while Smith and Fasching interned at the Office of Communications and Public Affairs. (Courtesy of Marcus Smith)

Since then, he said he’s thrived in the freelance world, shooting more than 200 events for paid rates. He works consistently at Lehigh’s Digital Media Studio and was named the president of the Creatives of Lehigh, a collection of freelance and student photographers, during the spring semester of his junior year. 

Smith said the Lehigh photography community is like no other. He said in conducting research, student photographers at many other universities compete, considering each other’s existences to be threats to their gigs. 

But at Lehigh, he said the freelance photographers are willing to pass off gigs and build each other up, establishing rates that allow for everyone to win.

It was that friendly community and his willingness to help others that pushed Smith to start his own business during his post-intern years.

He said during the summer before his junior year, he received an Instagram message from an admitted Lehigh international student named Quan, who was from Vietnam. Smith said Quan told him his photos allowed him to envision Lehigh’s campus, despite being unable to physically step foot on it.

Upon meeting in person at a Creatives meeting, Smith said Quan expressed his interest in photography but shared he lacked a budget for camera equipment.

“I started to see the dream die a little bit,” Smith said. “There weren’t those opportunities, and it sat with me. I needed to figure this out.”

He said he always had an entrepreneurial mindset throughout his life. Back home in Connecticut, he helped his mother start a YouTube channel before he left for college, and he helped set up a Shopify store during the COVID pandemic.

Smith saw the vision for the start-up — an organization that could provide kits that contained gear to help prevent a lack of accessibility to equipment from holding students with photography passions back. One that could help students just like Quan.

Even while working with the Office of Communications and Public Affairs, Smith said he has always focused on doing the unscalable — adding value through enacting processes that will last beyond his time at Lehigh.

But with this, he said he never wanted to undermine the organization he had grown to love as a freelancer. Instead, his start-up would complement the Creatives and allow future student photographers to reap the benefits he plans to add through equipment accessibility and guidance.

Marcus Smith, ’25, and the Creatives are pictured at Lehigh’s Dancefest in Baker Hall on April 18, 2025. Smith has worked to have his start-up, The Phocus Network Inc., complement the work of the Creatives, a collection of freelance and student photographers. (Courtesy of Marcus Smith)

Smith said he dealt with detractors who questioned why he wouldn’t try to focus on maximizing profits for himself, but stressed how his mission always was to provide value and solve something beyond himself — with the business side simply following suit.

For that reason, he calls his start-up “The Phocus Network, Inc,” a name representative of his desire to expand this system past Lehigh to support the next generation of students.

The organization launched in September of last year, and Smith has already offered professional headshot guidance through it. 

As for his postgraduate plans, Smith is staying at Lehigh for a graduate year to get his master’s degree in technical entrepreneurship.

But he said more importantly, this will also buy him an extra year to continue growing his business on Lehigh’s campus. 

Despite it being his primary venture, he said he wants to be remembered as more than just a photographer.

“What I will be remembered for is probably (photography) but, fundamentally, someone who was deeply involved and committed and made you feel like a part of the community,” he said.