Jenna
Jenna in Chiffon, 2017.
Jenna is one of the most graceful models I've ever had the pleasure of photographing. It was one of those shoots where magic happened.
I love simple shoots with simple setups and props. An octadome, a piece of chiffon, and a fan. And it turned out so beautifully.
When collaborating with models, I wait for spontaneous moments of magic to happen. We move together in various rhythms—me suggesting something, the model trying out a new pose—and we find the harmony. Working with Jenna was amazing. She moves so beautifully, and I saw this strong femininity in the way she holds herself. Often shooting with male photographers, she loved the unique way I as a woman captured her on camera.
Fashion is great, but sometimes it gets too complicated. I love light and movement, shape and textures. For me it's more than showing off clothes. I want the personality and emotions of the model to come through. And the more I experiment, the more I come back to simple and sleek forms, clean lines, and beautiful natural expressions.
Huge thanks to Brandon Facon, for saving my butt last minute with technical difficulties so this shoot could happen. And thank you so much Jenna, for collaborating with me, being so patient, and such a pleasure to work with. I can't wait to shoot with you again.
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Model/Hair/MUA: Jenna Leos
Styling/Photography: Sophia Liu
Pregnancy is a magical moment in your life when you discover the extent of womanhood, something that connects you to all the generations before you. Depicting the essence of maternity had to be done against the backdrop of the natural landscape.
I set up a casual portrait session in my office photo studio and revisited my favorite lighting setup: one light, one softbox, and a fan.
Ultimately it’s the fine art work I’m drawn to. It’s portraiture, natural expression, the female form, shapes, earth’s elements, and movement.
It all about the lines, facial expression, light, and fashion coming together to create a mood. And that’s not science, but art.
Inspired by Herb Ritts, I went to Coney Island with model and dancer Anica, and played around with chiffon, the sand, and the water.
I love light and movement, shape and textures. For me it's more than showing off clothes. I want the personality and emotions of the model to come through. And the more I experiment, the more I come back to simple and sleek forms, clean lines, and beautiful natural expressions.
Refusing glossy perfection to create simple, truthful, and photojournalistic photographs that look into each person's soul.
The natural curves of a human body and the raw texture of skin are three-dimensional elements of a subject reveal light, contour, gesture, perspective.
Aan athlete's body in itself tells a story of hard work, determination, and persistence.
I'm learning to love shadows and darkness in my photos. There's so much depth in contrast, something largely different from clean spotless white background stock photos. No human subject should be photographed like a dull product.
With a black velvet sweep and a 5' octobox, I shot some intimate couple portraits in a way you'd never see college sweethearts photographed. No stereotypical lovey-dovey gimmicks, just genuine love.
It was such a blast getting to photograph Pramika last weekend. She has one of the most gorgeous smiles I've ever seen, and looks beyond elegant in this soft lighting.
Last weekend I had the opportunity to shoot with Hillary, a model and trainer who recently moved to San Luis Obispo.
The clothes a model wears speaks so much about the person wearing them and the artistic vision behind the photos. And as you can probably guess, this shoot is my aesthetic af.
I invited my friend Mariah to come in and model, and asked Bernadette to do a soft smokey look on her. My concept was natural, sexy, supermodel.
I'm sure you've seen the work of Alexander Yakovlev. He captures dancers in motion, floating amongst a whirlwind of flour. And the results are jawdroppingly beautiful. Who wouldn't want to attempt to replicate that?
I decided to shoot portraits, and incorporate nature and other settings as stylistic compositions that fill in the silhouettes. I wanted the curve of the hand and faces to be appear as a natural and inherent frame.
I love being able to create these editorial portraits I've been trying to reproduce since my teenage days flipping through glossy magazines.
As I moved around and adjusted those lights I'm seeing how much of a difference shooting in a studio can make, and I'm seeing images with a whole new set of eyes.
Who would’ve guessed that ten years later, while the world embraces a collective nostalgia for 2016, I’d find myself revisiting this hobby again.