TikTok sensation and photography wizard Grigoriy Geniyevskiy shuddered with excitement at attending his first-ever rugby match on Saturday – Ireland v South Africa.
The 22-year-old from Killarney is a founding member of the inaugural Autumn Nations Series Supporters Club and this November is combining his love for photography with the unique drama of international rugby.
Ever since he was given a camera at age 10, Geniyevskiy loved nothing more than going on adventures, capturing special moments and meeting fresh faces.
And when he decided to upload his stunning content to TikTok, the freelance photographer could not begin to imagine where it would lead.
“I started doing my thing on TikTok and what started off as a joke became something more serious,” said Geniyevskiy.
“I thought, why don’t I start uploading my photos and editing and that’s when it took off.
“Back in 2019 I just took a picture of some flowers and I added some long exposure to it – that’s when it went from 10,000 to 60,000 in a month.”
Geniyevskiy, who goes by @griggen on TikTok, has now racked up almost 500k followers and 17m likes for his striking and inventive creations.
And ahead of the crunch game between world number ones Ireland and reigning world champions South Africa, Geniyevskiy was bursting with ideas and anticipation.
“I’ve got loads of ideas,” he said. “What seems to be doing well on TikTok at the moment is taking strangers’ portraits mid-cheer or wearing face paint without them knowing and coming up to them after and showing them.
“Then there’s the whole vlogging idea, collected quick snippets and having photos tagged along with it. I’m going to add my own style to it with some crazy unique edits using photoshop
“I’ve always been into sports. I played rugby in secondary school, but I’ve never been to a rugby match before!
“I’ve been to some small sporting events before, but nothing to this scale. I’ve watched Ireland on TV before and the atmosphere looks amazing.
“It’s always something I’ve wanted to do but unfortunately I’ve never had the opportunity. It’s definitely different to what I’ve done before.”
With such a huge following online, Geniyevskiy is determined to turn his passion into a full-time job and continue creating content that amazes and inspires people to dive into the world of rugby.
“Getting this far in content creation and having so many people appreciating my work online, having such a big audience on TikTok is an amazing experience,” said Geniyevskiy.
“I want to grow myself as a content creator. But I’m up for anything. Any job, give me a camera and I’ll be happy.
“I’ve done photography for a while now and I never get bored of it.”
