Exercises in Mysterious Self-Portraiture
Exploring her fascination with light and shadow, Sofie Sund creatively captures her silhouette in different settings.
Sofie Sund remembers the day she was introduced to photography as a momentous occasion.
“My dad let me try his DSLR camera for the first time,” she says, recalling that day in 2008, “and I remember falling in love with photography instantly.”
The passion stuck with her, and she went on to study photography in Trondheim in her native Norway, completing her degree last year. While attending university, Sofie began pushing the boundaries of her art and experimenting with new subject matter.
“I used to take self-portraits a lot, and it was basically the only type of photo I took for a long time,” she shares, “but I slowly realized that I could express my feelings through other types of photography as well.”
As Sofie’s portfolio expanded, she began playing with portraying her form in new ways. Rather than abandon self-documentation completely, she developed a photo series of her silhouette.
“They are kind of anonymous if you don’t know me and my art,” she says of these images, “and that’s what I like about them. My haircut is basically the only thing that is recognizable.”
It was a change in Sofie’s natural environment that inspired her to begin this photo series.
“In Trondheim, the winter was darker and felt a lot longer than in Lier, where I grew up, so I started appreciating sunlight a lot more,” she says.
Her fascination with light and shadow grew, and she developed a preference for shooting in natural lighting.
“I love how light moves throughout the day, especially in the morning or when it gets close to sunset,” she explains. “The shadows are in that one perfect spot for just a few minutes, and then they’re gone. To me that’s what makes those kinds of pictures so special.”
Sofie challenges herself to capture silhouettes that feel distinctive rather than repetitive.
“I think shooting at various locations in different types of light is important, as well as using different perspectives,” she notes.
She also experiments with color and tone during the editing process to make her photos stand apart.
“I use HSL to work with the colors and Split Tone to give the highlights and shadows different tints,” she explains.
Depending on her mood, Sofie will edit a photo to showcase either a warm or cool tone, but she sometimes finds interesting results by melding these opposing attributes in a single photo.
“I love to try combining both warm and cool by making the shadows a blue tone, and the highlights a yellow/orange or pink tone.”
The final product is a captivating series of anonymous portraits that are as mysterious as they are charming.
See more of Sofie Sund’s work on VSCO.
