Life & Work with Steven Soria

Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven Soria.

Hi Steven, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Well, prior to this year, my story was kind of like any other kid who grew in or around Los Angeles and wanted to be a filmmaker. My parents gave me a camera when I was very young. I grew up shooting movies in high school with superstars like Jessica Gao and Shea William Vanderpoort. Then I went to film school. Then I started working in film. I was briefly the head of production/creative director for a production company called The Indie Workforce. During my time there, I established myself as a music video director and my career has been primarily focused on that and photography (editorial, fashion, press, etc…). After that, I kickstarted a web series, directed some shorts, a pilot, did the festival circuits, won some awards until I landed at Respectful Lust Records where I currently head the film and television department of the company. But then at the tail end of 2019, I got back-to-back cases of pneumonia that kind of took me out of the game AND THEN!

When I finally recovered, my doctor had told me about covid, told me I was “high risk”, and told me I had to strict-quarantine in February. So there was that. A few months in, I kind of needed to really start figuring out how to adjust to being locked-down. I needed a creative outlet just for my own peace of mind and that’s how I landed on toy photography. Yup. Toy photography. Several months later… I’m curating a small group of toy collectors called the Tr4K Alliance wherein we highlight, encourage, and discuss toy photographers from all over the world. We’ve built a modest following on Instagram and just recently launched our youtube channel with a variety of original shows focused on different aspects of toy photography. It’s kind of like what I had always done but on a much smaller scale… literally. And despite that, it feels bigger…in the scope of my life anyway. Even with the looming presence of the world outside my house, during 2020 of all years, I’ve kind of never been happier or felt more artistic and in control of that art and my instincts.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Yes. Very smooth. Does anyone ever say that? [chuckles] I don’t know. Sure, yeah, it’s been pretty difficult but I think I’ve learned that anytime there were bumps on the road, hurdles to overcome, it was really just me getting in the way of myself, starting little self-destructive fires. Caving in and imploding and melting down…especially during interviews… …Oh… Uh-oh. But yeah, if it was difficult, it was probably my own fault. The people in my life have been generally pretty supportive and the ones who’ve stuck by me are constantly teaching me how to adjust, break bad habits, and human better. Hopefully, I’m making progress.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I think as a young artist, I was constantly trying to do that… “set myself apart” thing, be subversive. My mentor in film school told me that my directing style was nihilistic and that my movies were unintentionally cynical. Maybe they were right. I think during that time, I was constantly trying to prove something to myself or my peers or my family, ignoring the fact that the entire time, no one was really asking me to… But then something interesting happens later on in your life. When you feel like you’re alone and you hit a wall or a bottom. This great purge happens and suddenly, you don’t feel the pressures you used to, You kind of stop needing to prove yourself, stop competing with everyone around you (including your friends), and when that happens you kind of just start to focus on the creative. (Geez, I almost said “the art” but I didn’t. Can I have a cookie? No? Not ’til after the interview is complete? Okay. Fine.) What I should’ve done then is what I’m doing now. It took me some time to learn what I needed to learn… personally. I’m speaking strictly about myself, not about the others that were around me. But at Tr4k, I operate in a group dynamic that supports and uplifts each other. We’re focused on being creative but the process feels more communal. We’re focused on telling stories and trying to help other people tell their stories too. Suddenly my stuff is being described as “optimistic”.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I wanted to have time to myself to figure out what I wanted to say with this quarantine and it was right in front of me the entire time. I hated the sight of my camera and the thought of shooting anything, even auditions for my partner. Then I realized that with us being huge nerds, we were surrounded by comic books, video games, and the action figures that correspond with those properties. Suddenly I love my camera again. For the first time in five years. All I had to do was do what I’ve always done, I just aim smaller now. Aim small, miss small, right? Is that how that goes? You don’t know? It’s fine. It feels like a new aspect of my life that I could easily be embarrassed about and I probably still have to make my peace with a bit of it. But among all the things I keep kind of private in my life, this new kind of approach to what I’ve always been able to do has been surprising… even to me.

Contact Info:

• Email: tr4kalliance@gmail.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/sorry_tr4k, instagram.com/tr4k_alliance
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TR4KALLIANCE
• Other: instagram.com/tr4k_academy

Image Credits
First photo by Jazz Harding all other photos by Gabriel Stevens