#sophiarenee

[beautifulburg]

Don't miss photog #SophiaRenee tonight at 6 on #BeautifulBurgPodcast! #DownloadtheAPP #LifeImprovementRadio Check out her curated show of photog #DanielleDautel #AStrangersDiary @softwaterstudios 3/31

[lushlifeblog]

We have been wondering about one of our favorite photographers recently. Sophia Renee's pics always brighten our day on The Lush Life. So we took a stroll over to Sophia's blog. Check out this sweet article on her very hot Boys Of Summer by Kimmie Harris of ARTNEWS

“A beautiful, sensual body of work reminiscent of Bruce Weber. With The Boys Of Summer, Sophia Renee evolves into a uniquely gifted chronicler of the male form.”   - The Concierge                                                                                                               

The Boys Of Summer, Sophia Renee’s epic photographic homage to the skaters, surfers and male models inhabiting her universe, is quickly becoming the most well known- and all consuming- aspect of her professional portfolio. So far, nearly three thousand images -featuring nearly a dozen men- have been shot over three years. Despite the overwhelming popularity the artist and many of her images have found on social media, Sophia still has mixed feelings about the direction of the still unpublished monograph. “At this point, it feels like a baby that won’t grow up,” says the artist. 

The Boys of Summer first came onto our radar in 2010 when a portion of the monograph was serialized on Convozine. Sophia’s striking images of a tattooed, dreadlocked model named Robbie Gambrell seemed the polar opposite of everything we were seeing in fashion and fitness imagery at the time. Kiki Van Ark, a former contributor for OUT magazine who runs several high profile blogs and has followed Sophia’s evolution says, “The images of Robbie Gambrell were a revelation. In the context of this project, he gave her the direction she needed. She took a very edgy, unusual looking man and iconized him. In many ways, I think Robbie Gambrell is the silent center of the whole series. Their work together is so widely circulated that his image has become inexplicably linked with her and her work with him.”

 Despite the success she found with Gambrell, Sophia concentrated primarily on new faces throughout much of 2012. “My work with Robbie kind of set a standard for the creative’s following my work. I really like Robbie as a person and as a model. But I felt like I needed to step away from him for a moment because those images became so popular. I didn’t want other models competing or having to measure up to that. He was becoming identified as the face of my series which is a great testament to his beauty…but I wanted it to be a collective.”

 Since 2012, Sophia has concentrated on spotlighting new faces including model Michael Heppner, a young man who possesses a Gambrell-like magic but with a more wholesome all-American feel. She continues to enjoy a strong response to the series and is now focusing specifically on the skate/surf lifestyle theme. “Before, I was shooting a variety of themes. I realize now how counter-productive that was. I want the monograph to have one cohesive theme. There will be a variety of men. But the theme is constant. The story will be the same,” she says. Will she be photographing Robbie again?  ”Definitely. I have photographed him since but not for the book. But I will be shooting him again in the coming months. It will be fun to reinterpret this theme again and see if we can recapture the magic of the first shoot.”

 We wondered what happens to all of the work which is no longer right for the monograph. Interestingly enough, many of them will still see the light of day. New York Times Bestselling Author Jayne Rylon recently licensed several images initially intended for the book to appear on the covers of her new series of romance novels. 

As for the monograph, it remains a work in progress. About a month ago, Sophia reached an impasse with the European publisher who showed an interest in the project two years ago. She is now without an editor but remains optimistic. “I believe in this project and others do too. There are plenty of publishers. I am fully committed to this series and when I set my sights on something, it gets done. I have no desire to put a bunch of pretty pictures in a book and put my name on it. The Boys Of Summer will be published when the time is right and I find the right company who believes in my vision. I’m not in a hurry. I’d rather have it done correctly, and done my way , than go in a direction I don’t believe in.”  

Written by Kimmie Harris for ARTNEWS