Meet Sofia Ziman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sofia Ziman.

Hi Sofia, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Hi, it’s an honor to be here! I guess my creative backstory dates back to the early days of my childhood. I was raised by a family of artists who encouraged me to think big and navigate the world in my own way. I had a number of hobbies as a kid–I loved horses, circus arts, fashion design, writing and up until high school I thought I was going to be a rockstar. I acquired my first camera—a neon pink Nikon cool pix —on my seventh birthday and filled the memory in two days. I’m still like that, I can’t help but take photos of everything I see and do. I remember when I was twelve or thirteen, every girl I knew had a camera and created a photography account on Instagram. Of course, I had one of those accounts, I think it was called szphotos or something. But most people grew out of that phase. I spent my teen years practicing photography, it wasn’t long before my hobby became my favorite form of self-expression.

I remember that I used to cold-call brands and models via Instagram DM, begging to let me shoot for them. I said yes to every opportunity no matter how big or small, through trial and error I found my personal aeteur. I realized that I could create countless photoshoots with low budgets and nearby resources. It helped that I was surrounded by my beautiful and creative friends who were always down to collaborate, help out and get weird on camera. The work we made for fun became the reason brands and people I used to dream of shooting began to reply to my messages and even reach out to me for once!

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?
Creative burnout. I tend to overwork myself, there are weeks–like this one actually– where I cram so much onto my plate. I’m a junior at NYU, so balancing school and work can be very difficult. I used to be a photography major, but once I started booking jobs and pursuing personal projects, I realized that studying my craft was making me sick of it. Switching my major added much more to my plate. Last year during finals, I had three research essays and a final exam due during the same week that I had booked myself four important photoshoots. In the library, one tab was writing an essay about Ancient Egypt while the other was editing pre-Met Gala images. By the end of the week I was so creatively– and physically– drained that I knew I had reached my limit. I want to give every shoot my full attention, I love feeling excited about my art, giving everyone involved an exciting experience from the moment we begin to plan until the second the images are shared with the world. Photography is really about the connection between the model and the person behind the camera, so if either party is burnt out it really shows– I hate half-assing anything, especially my work.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The work I tend to share with the world is typically quirky, colorful and stylized portraiture. I like my work to tell a story when it can. I can’t say it is always successful, but I’ve been trying to avoid trends. Something that I love about photographs is that they are timeless, I think they only get better as they age. I think that social media makes it easy for people to be placed into one category. Most people know me as a photographer because that is what I post. What they don’t see is everything that isn’t posted. Many people don’t know about my other work, I love to write stories, poems, scripts, and have started to publish articles to various magazines. I love working with musicians, making music videos, album art, and helping them develop their aesthetics. I keep a scrapbook journal where I hand-collage the happenings of my life. What started out as a form of therapy for me has became a distinctive part of my craft. I don’t share all of it, but what I have shown to the world has received positive feedback and a number of commissions. I can confidently say that I am proud of the work I am making right now, but I am excited to continue to see how my style and interests evolve as I continue to grow up.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
I would probably tell my younger self to be patient, I think that for so long I expected instant gratification in so many aspects of my life. But taking your time to learn and work hard is really important, it makes those glory moments so much more worth it. To get better at anything, one needs to put their egos aside and let themselves fail over and over again. That probably sounds super cliche and annoying but that is probably because it’s a truth. I never used to edit my photos, I would say that it was because I loved the way film looked raw or that it was cheating or that I liked to work my settings in-camera. I can now say that I didn’t want to edit my photos because I was bad at using Photoshop and Lightroom and I was too lazy to learn. Now, editing images is one of my favorite parts of the process, plus it really adds an extra level of spice and sophistication.

Contact Info:

• Website: sofiaziman.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sofziman/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofia-ziman-a734a0235/

Image Credits
Header portrait of Sofia by Carly Sharp
All other imagery by Sofia Ziman