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Sinjun Strom -by Izzy Commers-

Aside from making a platform to show the fantastic artists in my life, part of the reason I started the Artist Collective was to understand how other artists derived their inspiration. What I’ve have been struggling with as of late, is finding my style, or my place in the vast world of art...

If anyone has got style... it’s Sinjun Strom. Even before looking at her photography, you can see her unique style through her sensational outfits. She clearly has a great eye for color, and mixing patterns and textures - translating this into her photographs has yielded truly spectacular results.

I think the struggle to find your style/place/voice in art is a struggle that almost everyone must face in order to be productive and proactive with their artwork. I see this struggle like a massive puzzle. From following several artists from their beginnings, I’ve noticed a point in each case in which they started to find some pieces to their puzzle, and as I continue to watch them grow, I see their puzzles becoming more and more complete.

I mentioned to Sinjun how I was feeling stuck in trying to find myself in art -

“Honestly that has been the hardest thing for me. One thing that I did to help me focus in on what I wanted to do was that I tried to expose myself to less imagery. I stopped looking at what other people were doing and I started thinking about what I wanted. I felt like I kept letting other people’s ideas get into my own because I was looking at so much photography online. It’s just natural to subconsciously take things from other people sometimes.“

I always feel so reassured, knowing that other people have experienced and are experiencing this same struggle that I am. I think Sinjun brought up a great point in trying to expose herself to less imagery. Just as you might look through a magazine and see a pretty sweater, you can go on tumblr and see a pretty picture. However, just because the sweater is pretty doesn’t mean you need it, and just because you see a pretty picture doesn’t mean you need to take it. There’s a huge importance is DISCOVERING- Discovering the right sweater for you. Discovering WHY you want to take the photos that you want to take. Who knows how many pretty pictures are out there in the world, but WHY is the photo you’re talking pretty to YOU, or what does it mean to you? I think being exposed to less imagery is a very smart way to finetune what you want to do. Essentially, you’re giving yourself your undivided attention- you’re thinking about what you truly want, instead of being distracted by what you think you want.

“I let myself do me for awhile.”

Another part of this puzzle that I brought up to Sinjun is the pressure to make my photos MEAN something. With my experience so far, I’ve felt much more inclined to capture a certain style or more specifically, the things that fit my style at that moment. I took this Black and White film course earlier this school year, and each of our assignments was related to a certain theme. I struggled so much- not because I didn’t have feelings or topics that I wanted to express, but because I didn’t know how to translate those feelings through photography, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to. I’m in this place now, where I don’t know if I should work to be better in that sense, and create art that is meaningful beyond my aesthetic choices, or if I should keep doing what I know I enjoy..

You have both this colorful more fashion/aesthetically inclined side, but also a more serious side with your medium/large format work, so how do you feel about this concept of being meaningful?

“Yeah, its hard. For a long time I really wanted to make images that meant something, but then I realized that that is not me. I literally just like to make images that are aesthetically pleasing -mainly because I'm interested in fashion. Once I started doing work that I enjoyed I was so much happier, and I started growing a lot faster. But I do have a serious side that I go back to sometimes from when I first started, like my original direction... because I do still have things to say, but I only do those once in awhile because I want to think them out more. I guess I do make a statement in my fashion images, except more subtly. I like to make strong images of women because so many in the industry are so gross and objectifying. I’m pretty careful about poses and such. I feel like when people try to photograph feminist ideas, it’s so heavy handed because it’s SO feminist. You know?”

EXACTLY! I think Sinjun hit the nail right on the head. She’s made photos empowering rather than objectifying without having to sacrifice her fun, upbeat style. I like the idea of making meaningful artwork when you feel that you NEED to, instead of feeling pressured to do that consistently. I’ve also noticed somewhat of a stigma towards “meaningless” artwork from some of my peers, as if that is somehow easy in comparison. This seems ridiculous to me. Effort needs to be applied to make a meaningful, impactful piece of art, but making an interesting, aesthetically pleasing piece of art is by no means effortless. You can take one look at Sinjun’s elaborate photos and see the thought that went into them.

My last question to Sinjun was the question I ask all of the artists I interview for the Artist Collective: What inspires you?

“I'm really inspired by old movies. That might not show directly in my work but I pull very specific things from them. Lately I've been incredibly inspired by Florida actually! Specifically the architecture and the pastel buildings combined with neon signs. I reaaally want to recreate those feelings/moods from those buildings.”

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SinjunStromPhotography

Website: http://www.sinjun-strom.com/

Tumblr: http://badgirlzclubdiary.tumblr.com/

Instagram: @sstromphoto

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