Case Study: Sophia Sunwoo
Sophia is a serial entrepreneur and startup founder, a Forbes 30 under 30 honoree and currently, a startup guide for women entrepreneurs. A few years ago, she was burned out and went through a transformational journey to discover a sense of purpose. Currently, she advises her clients on how to create moneymaking businesses while maintaining a sense of balance in their lives. Sophia wanted her photos to be raw, natural, vulnerable and honest about her life. After all, that’s what she advises her clients, so she wanted to ‘walk the walk’!
Sophia’s Mood Board
While creating her Mood Board, Sophia found herself completely drawn to photos that were completely raw, natural and vulnerable. She had almost no photos of anyone posing for or even seemingly aware of the camera, but of people simply being and existing in their space. She wanted to capture a wide variety of emotion, showing all of herself.
Some photos from Sophia’s session
During the session itself, we aimed to capture three major themes: the Before, when Sophia was in her #hustle phase and burnt out, the Transformation, showing her gradually finding her way to the light, and the Now, where she has embraced who she truly is and has found her purpose. The photos we captured show Sophia’s evolution through these three phases in her journey.
What Sophia says …
“The type of people I surround myself with have a journey similar to mine. They’re exploring ways to be more authentic, to tell their story and show up in the world as their true selves. You are the photographer for that type of person; someone who’s a little quirky, who isn’t afraid to march to their own drum.
It’s really rare to find photographers who are less obsessed with the superficial side of photography. We all want to look good in our photos, but you hit another dimension by going deeper, beneath the surface layers. I felt that I could have hard conversations about authenticity, who I really am and honoring all sides of me; good and bad. You really capture and honor that experience!”