Millions of photographs.
Dozens of terabytes of data.
A movie-like life.
Memories – a blue camera strap. Old old photos of gone – but not forgotten – people.
Poland. India. Morocco. Yoga. Music. Memories.
Royalty. Goddesses. Horses. Weddings. The Sun. Brands. Landscapes. The endless ocean. Human-made structures. Fashion.
In this, our first ever in-depth photographer feature, we invite you to discover the magical world of Sonia Frydrych’s art, and to see the world as she does.
The Morocco Series
This series of photographs that commemorate several magical months spent by Sonia in Morocco in 2024 pays tribute to the inspiration she received from the colors, the people, and the architecture of the country.
So it is that you look at the image of a lone golden horse on the golden-ochre cliff-dunes, and you fancy that the white-flecked waves are tiny horses. And the infinite shades of gold on the land are matched only by the effortless spanning of the blue spectrum, in the sea and in the sky.
Elsewhere in the collection, the Natarajasana is a symphony in green: vividly emerald-hued tiles, potted plants in bloom, tree fronds draped over the sides. It brings together East and West and the in-between: as Ibn Battuta, seven centuries ago, journeyed to the other ancient land of India from his roots in medieval Tangier, so does this pose build bridges, two oases of culture and wisdom bridged by the grace and simplicity of the Cosmic Dancer.
The green-ness of the overall piece and the geometric symmetry of the Natarajasana photograph recall the flag of Morocco, in which the limbs of a star overlap perfectly to create harmony. Universal harmony.
We could say so much more about the brilliance of this collection: of the poster-version of Uma Thurman in a red fez, of a perfectly framed almost-rectangle of sky seen through the latticed pattern work of a small open courtyard, of white cats contemplating black coffee, of light and shade transitioning into each other across sharp, aquiline angles. But we will let you discover them; the conversion rate of pictures to words (1000:1) means that nothing we say about the photographs can truly do them the justice that your eyes will.
Analog photography
One of Sonia’s professional aims going forward is to make space to shoot more analog film; she loves how satisfying the process is, and how the different visual outcomes – for example, the grain effects that transformed the sand dunes in her Morocco photographs into rivers of gold – complement her digital work.
Another aspect of analog is that she doesn’t get to see the result right away. She might shoot up to 14 rolls before having all developed, and seeing the results of her work all at once is always a lovely surprise.
It feels like unzipping a folder that comes from the printer and opening a Christmas gift that I made for myself half a year ago!
Sonia’s Story
So many of us take the linear path to our careers; we take one step and then the next in a predictable sequence, knowing where we are going at all times.
But photography came into Sonia’s life like a premonition of the future, featuring in treasured childhood memories, hobbies in adulthood, and ultimately revealing itself as her calling, one of the things she was put on this Earth to do.
Because she remembers, when she was very little, noticing her father taking pictures with his Zenit analog camera. She remembers the blue strap, remembers watching the rolls of film against the light, wondering what mysteries of magic and wonder and memory they held.
And in childhood, photographs also became for Sonia a gateway to other times and places. Her grandfather would show her his collections of pictures featuring long-dead friends and relations and strangers, and tell her stories about them, so they stayed alive through the power of shared remembrance.
It wasn’t till Sonia was 18 that she got her first real camera; she pooled together all her birthday money and bought a Nikon D60 + NIKKOR Z 50mm f/1.4 lens. She was the President of the Photography Club at university for a year, working with a like-minded group of enthusiasts to understand the craft better, watching film to analyze how the masters did it. And then she kept shooting to get better; assisting at larger shoots to hone her skills, always learning, never stopping. She attended a few workshops early on and found that the best way to learn was by doing, observing, and doing again; formal education is useful but not necessary.
And even when she got really good, and started being booked regularly for everything from wedding shoots to one-on-one brand stories to yoga shoots, it took a while for Sonia to call herself a photographer, to realize that the calling that had been whispering to her all her life had actually found her and been embraced fully.
Today, she uses a Canon EOS R6 with multiple lenses including Sigma Art 35 mm 1.4, Canon 50 mm, 80 mm, and Sony FE 24-105 mm. For her analog photography, she uses a Pentax P30.
Process
After so many shoots, Sonia has developed a systematic procedure for making sure that every project goes smoothly.
When she’s never met the model before, Sonia has to balance two things: getting to know the person, which happens through an initial discussion, and establishing a professional setting early on, so that it’s not just talking and drinking chai, though that is definitely part of the process.
The most foundational principle of her shoots is putting the model(s) at ease, so that she can document their most authentic selves, and photograph the soul as well as the person in which the soul lives. Being kind and friendly always works, but it’s also about observation, and hitting a short reset break or trying something different when she can sense that there is nervousness. And her practised eye can tell if there is tension around the eyes and near the jawline. When this happens, she reaffirms how beautiful the model is, how special the shoot is, and gently leads them back to a place where they can be secure in their own greatness.
The best shoots are always those where the model forgets that Sonia is there, and she uses the camera effectively for this, hiding behind it, seeing everything through the viewfinder. If something isn’t working, Sonia prefers to be direct, to ask if they can try a different pose or expression. And after every shooting block, she always shows the pick of the pictures to the model, affirming that they’re doing a good job; Sonia knows how important it is to celebrate strong results. This can also be an eye opener for many models: self-images in our heads are very different from what the camera sees.
Overall, she wants the shoot to be associated, for the model, with comfort, safety, confidence and therapeutic value, like self-care catalyzed by lights and camera and intentional action.
Series: The Royal Rebels of Mysore
The Royal Rebels of Mysore series is one of Sonia’s most ambitious projects to date: a collection that blends lifestyle and history and the living memory of one of the oldest cities in the world.
There are many visual themes that run through the Royal Rebels of Mysore series. One of them is the Sun; if the series had an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, the solar deity would surely win.
In some photographs of the series, the sun creates a diamond ring effect; captured perfectly through a small space between strands of hair, or just above the horizon, or split into a million shards of crystal splendor by the human subjects of the series.
In some photographs, the sun is implied, even if it is not physically seen. Like in the images with the pavilion as a backdrop: the serene yellows and faded blue-greys in which the giant steps are painted recall the gold of the solar orb in the morning sky.
And in yet others, the sun lends its magic of light and shadow to create delicate patterns across the photographs, weaving a tapestry of illuminated faces (of the models) and accentuated backgrounds. In the images that have particularly special interplay between light and dark, the sun creates its own work of art to enhance the larger work of art that is the portrait, like an exclamation point on a particularly well-crafted sentence.
There is an undercurrent of divinity that runs through the series, with subtle aspects woven through every photograph.
First, of course, there are the depictions of the models who fill each frame with grace and elegance. They are goddesses who inhabit the earthly plane, perfectly poised, lotus hands in harmony with earth and sky.
There’s also the ever-present background of cricket, a sport that is religion and deity and passion and life to two billion people across the world, second only to football, but with fans who live and breathe it to an even greater extent.
There are the steps that lead ever onwards and upwards. They accentuate the feeling of striving to reach a higher plane. The Royal Rebels of Mysore is filled with stairways to heaven.
The royalty of Mysore have always displayed the ability to care for their people above all else; there is a legacy of fierce independence. From the royal rebels who stood against the full might of the British Empire to those who have stood with the city after Independence, there is something indomitable about the rulers of this corner of South India.
And their patronage of the arts led to the unique features that fill the city, from a cricket ground that feels like a heritage site, to the Mysore Palace that is a default setting for every tourist itinerary, to the creative souls who are drawn to the city for artistic nourishment.
And the metaphor of royalty finds its fulfillment in the garments of the subjects of the photographs. So might the queens of old have posed gracefully to be immortalized by the artists of three centuries ago. The Royal Rebels of Mysore lets you travel in time as easily as it invites your mind to travel in space.
When you view the Royal Rebels of Mysore series, you will celebrate freedom, too. Every shot is framed in such a way as to highlight the complete comfort and lack of self-consciousness in its subject. The wide open spaces in the backdrop of the images hint at the expansive nature of freedom, where the Universe lies before you in all Her glory.
The Divine Feminine as Nature Spirit
When Sonia conceptualizes and executes shoots with a female model as their focus, the end result is both a celebration of the sacred feminine and an examination of the multiple levels at which goddesses and nature are interlinked.
For example, in this photoshoot of Yorsalem, Sonia highlights the natural beauty of the feminine form as a work of divine symmetry, as a piece of art that is a gift from the spiritual world, and does not examine it with a salacious eye.
I think I’m a lot more intuitive about it, there’s no deep thought behind it. For me, the most important thing is that the model should feel beautiful, confident. Like a self-care session.
The focus of the camera is not uncomfortable, not a hot seat. It is a spectator during a moment of uninhibited freedom, a window into the world of a goddess in her prime, as loose-limbed and supple as a young tree.
The spotlight is shared: the black and white rendition of the model is just as prominent as the intricate natural beauty of the desert plants and light/shadow patchwork that fills the rest of the photograph, so that you cannot – either visually or thematically – separate the divine feminine from the natural world.
Hidden Gems
Sonia’s oeuvre includes uncounted photographs of everything imaginable. Terabytes of data. Multiple versions of images. Folders from wedding shoots whose sizes exceed those of modern AAA video games. Concert photographs where the red fire of the lights melts into the raw-boned artistry of the musicians’ hands and the palpable energy of the audience, transformed to another dimension through the power of sound. Simple candid pictures of models in nature where the uniqueness of the picture could be in a single look that sums up everything that an entire person is, the movie of their life in one glance. Creatively framed yoga poses where you marvel at how the universe and a human body can be so harmoniously presented together. Brand shoots where you forget that the aim is to promote something and lose yourself in the artistry of the shots.
And yet, she has only shared a tiny fraction of this immense body of work online. It’s not the tip of an iceberg, because even an iceberg shows 10% of itself to the world. It is more like an Arctic Tern perched on the very edge of a vast iceberg, a glittering jewel signposting the existence of an entire universe of beauty and wonder beneath, moments preserved for all eternity.
Creating Magic
When Sonia sees the world, colors are the first thing she notices. She is very sensitive to the atmosphere of a place, and loves being by herself with only music for a companion; her dad’s love of music influenced her from an early age, as did his talent for photography. Though her playlist is eclectic, she loves electronic music because of how well the rhythmic repetitions sync with her brain, and techno because it puts her in a calm creative trance.
The constant music soundtrack gives her life the feeling of a movie; one of her favorite memories is riding a scooter along a road at sunset, and having almost an out-of-body experience where she felt like she was cruising along in a cinematic dream.
Sonia’s work has several notable elements, but her depiction of the eyes of her models could have an entire feature dedicated to it.
Her work captures the intensity and interest and passion that we have when looking at something interesting that holds all of our attention. And it captures fleeting moments as well: some of her most powerful photographs have only one element: the model looking at the camera with a gaze so hypnotic and authentic and captivating that all those who view that time capsule in the future will be drawn to it.
And it’s all in the eyes: the windows to the souls that she paints using light and the physical bodies that those souls inhabit.
Love
When Sonia is entrusted with perpetualizing moments that hold all the love that life-partners-to-be have for each other, her approach parallels the nature of love itself.
In this collection, for example, more is unsaid than is said. More is in shadow than is revealed to the harsh light of day. All the unspoken truths about love that we know and yearn for and recall are in our minds, and their power is in that realm, where they wax and glow and warm our insides. Writing down what love is would be like attempting to contain the Milky Way in a bottle.
The pictures in the series celebrate intimacy in all its infinite hues, but they make you think about how physical closeness has its corresponding parallel universe in the mental domain, and how every second of time spent in the arms of one’s beloved creates petabytes of memories, an entire continent in our minds for every lover’s tryst, a country that we can visit again through the limpid portals of memory.
And the photographs are in black and white, because of course they are. What color in the spectrum, even one as intense as a million lasers, could possibly hold a candle to the burning purity of love, that radiates constantly at every frequency, filling up every sense. Our minds color in the photographs with our own hues of love.
Logistics
Even though Sonia doesn’t really reach out to potential clients herself, her body of past work and her extremely satisfied clientele means that she is hardly ever without work; people find her and ask her to photograph their yoga poses, their weddings, baptisms, brand shoots, and everything else that involves memories living on.
After the date, references, and the time window for preparation are locked in, Sonia decides the location. She always has a ready bank of locations in her mind, spending much of her travels filing away potential places for shoots in the back of her mind as she sees them. If the concept is very elaborate and involves a lot of moving parts, she might meet everyone involved a few days before. But usually the outfits are decided on the day, and then coffee together after that, everyone (the model(s), the client (if it’s a brand shoot), makeup and hairstylists) getting comfortable with each other, before it’s time to start.
Sonia knows her locations very well, but she still spends some time at the beginning of every shoot moving with her camera, taking pictures of backgrounds, deciding the perfect frames. And there’s always spontaneity and uncertainty; no matter how much forethought and preparation goes into everything, every unique project will have its own flow. It’s also very dynamic and physically challenging; she credits her decades of yoga experience for strengthening her back and giving her both the bodily endurance and mental focus required.
And it might last 5, 8, or even 12 hours, but it never feels like work, and it always feels meaningful. Sonia wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. After all, where else could she come back after an all-day shoot and be completely physically and mentally exhausted, but still sit down to transfer hundreds of gigabytes of data right away to see how it turned out?
Photography and Yoga
Sonia’s work as an artist, as a photographer, and her life as a yoga teacher and eternal student, are deeply intertwined.
She finds that they are deeply and fundamentally connected. Through either of these practices, she is able to make people feel better, to bring some change in their self-perception and elevate their confidence. To her, these two strands of her life are fundamental, and go hand in hand: they both enhance mental and physical wellbeing, and make people feel good about themselves.
Women need appreciation sometimes. If I can give them that inner glow by just clicking pictures and having fun with them during the shoot, nothing could possibly be better.
In Sonia’s photos, the camera looks like it knows the model well because of the conversational journey she travels with the model, putting them at ease, allowing their authentic self to appear through reaffirmations of their best qualities. Therefore, her photos are not moments in time, but slices of a journey that you sense. When her models look engrossed, looking off camera at something interesting, it is because they are truly at ease, confident enough to forget that the camera is there and daydream a little.
Triumph, Hardships, and Staying Inspired
Sonia’s career trajectory has surpassed everything she dreamed of, and she still continues to upgrade her skills and get measurably better, a decade and a half later. But it hasn’t all been roses.
She remembers a dreadful period between 2020 and 2022 when she suffered two personal losses – of her mother and grandfather – that sapped her enjoyment of life and drained her inspiration. For a while, she couldn’t see the beauty in anything, and it took a concerted effort to lift herself out of the dark pit that she was in, to develop the additional resilience needed to battle through it.
Journaling was one of the things she went back to during this time; using the techniques in “The Artist’s Way” Sonia went back to maintaining a daily diary, and this helped her cognitive skills, her ability to notice, and created a way to reconnect with a healthy practice from earlier on in her life. Through this and the other ideas in the book, and learning to appreciate the simple moments, Sonia was able to get back to a place where creating didn’t feel hard, and began loving the process again.
Never dreading Monday Mornings
Sonia’s photoshoots take hours (up to 12, in certain cases), are physically grueling, and involve multiple moving parts: a model, outfits, natural light, the camera. But she always has fun during the shoot and after, during the retouching phase. She doesn’t remember photography ever feeling like work.
Even when the shoots are hard because of external reasons, like demanding clients or constraints, Sonia is also proud of the fact that she has learned to put her foot down and establish boundaries over time. Even when conflict sometimes clouded a shoot, her principles and rules, established over years, stand her in good stead.
Future Plans and Gratitude
Sonia loves how she gets to be a part of events that are really important to people.
For example, when two people are getting married, in front of god and in front of their family, I get to be a part of that. The people who book me to photograph their weddings are trusting me with the most important moment of their lives…
She is very grateful and appreciative of how much it means to them. And they are appreciative back; Sonia keeps meeting her clients again and gets to document their families’ evolution over time, making baby showers and baptisms live forever through her lens, alongside the wedding photography that started it all.
Even today, when she has achieved so much, having depicted literal royalty through her photographs, while still having invested each of her models with that same regal splendor, Sonia’s imposter syndrome hasn’t completely gone away.
It still sidles up to her sometimes and whispers how everything she’s ever achieved is because of a series of fortunate events, and that she’s not even that good. But then she remembers how she’s traveled so much, had so many special experiences, and shot so many amazing people.
And then Sonia tells herself: You are very special, just like everyone else.
The perfect balance.
Links
Sonia Frydrych: Art (Photography Instagram Page): https://instagram.com/soniafrydrych.art.
Sonia Frydrych: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soniafrydrych.