Name:

Brandon Soder

Craft/Business:

Photography

Hobbies:

Cooking, Exploring, Thrifting

Hometown:

San Antonio, Texas

Website:

brandonsoder.com

How did you get started working in your craft?

I’ve wanted to be an artist since I was a little kid. I grew up drawing and painting, but was introduced to photography in my junior year of high school. Photography immediately intrigued me. My dad was an artist - an illustrator and graphic designer - so photography kind of became my own thing. Senior year of high school, I started doing work in the dark room more and got really into shooting photos in black and white film. My curiosity for the artform lead me to majoring in photography at the College of Santa Fe.

What was your professional journey before working in this field?

My professional practice started in college. Photography at the College of Santa Fe was very much focused on fine art and not so much commercial work. I didn’t shoot digitally in college, either. We learned more of the traditional film processes, like how to develop film, how to see an image and create compositions. After college, I worked for a camera shop and started collecting all my own gear. I decided to leave the camera shop at some point and went on a road trip for 6-7 weeks. I needed work when I came back, so I found jobs at pre-schools and nonprofits for a few years until I landed at SITE Santa Fe for a bit. Throughout those years, I had started shooting weddings, and while it wasn’t my favorite work, they were paid gigs and valuable experience. I left SITE Santa Fe to help with the original Meow Wolf build-out in the bowling alley and then decided it was time to pursue being a full-time photographer. I started assisting for more established photographers and transitioned into more paid and commercial work. I still assist Jamey Stillings and travel fairly often to New York and San Francisco with his photo crew. In contrast to my commercial work, my own work tends to be more portraiture. I started the portrait work in college when I did a project where I created tableaus with characters from the seven deadly sins and also the Stations of the Cross. Since then, portraits have been the path.

What do your days typically look like?

It really depends on what’s happening and what I’m working on. If I’m in Santa Fe and I’m not on a shoot, my day is me in my space, either backing up images or editing a project, responding to emails, working on a current project, developing a project or scheduling shoots. Being self-employed, I have to do all my own paperwork and planning. On my days where I have a scheduled shoot, it’s waking up and getting the gear ready and figuring out what I need for that specific project. If I’m assisting with a crew and I’m on the road, I wake up in a hotel and go with the flow of the schedule. I usually know within a couple weeks if I’m going to be traveling, so that changes how my day-to-day is in the time before I leave. In those few weeks I have to finish up what I'm working on, bring stuff to edit on the road from my personal work, schedule other shoots around when I’ll be gone… There’s a lot of planning in those weeks. It’s definitely not a 9-to-5 career.

What makes your pieces special?

My photos are gritty, unpolished, and real. I don’t over-edit and nothing’s over-processed… My portraits are honest. I enjoy capturing the awkward moments, the moments in-between. Photographing real people with real emotions can be challenging, and I do tend to work with everyday people. I rarely have an actual model. My work is really about capturing real people in real moments. At the same time, however, I love playing with color and have always been heavily influenced by it. I’ve been told that I have this ability to be loose and still in control of it all. Another thing that’s special about my work is who I photograph. I’ve photographed many creators, artists and musicians. I never sat down and said, “I’m just going to photograph artists and creative people.” It’s just that artists are already my community. I’ve always been a part of that world and surrounded by creatives. Many times, these people need a portrait to represent themselves, that showcases who they are and what they love. But truly, if I had the opportunity, I would do a portrait of anyone.

What is your future vision for your business?

I want to continue shooting the way that I am, while still improving technically. I’d like to be able to continue to push composition and get better with technical aspects, like lighting, while developing a client-base of my own. I’d like to do more editorials for magazines and work on campaigns and look books for companies that interest me. My hope is that I can eventually transition out of assisting and focus solely on my own work.

What's your favorite thing about your work?

Collaborating with people. Shooting portraits allows me to really establish a connection with the people I’m photographing. I’ve made a lot of friends by taking their photos or taking photos of their work. The last year and a half, I’ve done a lot of portraits for Sam of Ramblin Rose. It’s been pretty exciting to help her grow her business through my photos of people wearing her hats. It’s also lead to a great friendship, and I love that about my work.

What's the biggest challenge you face in your work?

Being self-employed is my biggest challenge. I have to be motivated to be creative. I have to create my own drive to get up and work. It’s entirely on me to contact new clients and develop collaborations. It can be a challenge for me when I have no one to answer to.

Who do you go to for professional advice, and what's the best advice they've given you?

Living in Santa Fe, I have a strong community of people in the arts and photography that I’ve known for a long time. If I need advice, I turn to them.

What advice can you give to budding creatives and entrepreneurs in Santa Fe?

You have to do the work. Santa Fe is not an easy place… It’s small, especially in the creative world. And because it’s so small, being part of the community is important. But ultimately, if you’re going to be an artist or open your own store, you have to get up and create all of that for yourself.

When and why did you decide to move to Santa Fe?

I moved here in 2004 when I came to college. How I got started and how I came to Santa Fe are very much the same. I chose College of Santa Fe for several reasons. I went to an art magnet school for high school, so my senior year was nearly all art classes. I was applying to schools like Savannah College of Art & Design, SVA, and Kansas City Art Institute. But I had a friend in high school who came out to College of Santa Fe, so it was always in the back of my mind. At the end of the day, I decided a liberal arts education would be better for me. Because I went to College of Santa Fe, I came out of undergrad without any loans, which would not have happened if I’d went to art school. Santa Fe felt weird and different; it felt like my place. The Southwest has always been a thing for me, even when I lived in San Antonio. The border, being such a blend of cultures, has always been an influence. I grew up going to the Mexico border with my family all the time. I was always around a diverse cultural influence, and Santa Fe has that as well. Border towns heavily influenced my earlier work. They’re always such interesting spaces, this clash of different cultures. Santa Fe has that.

What makes Santa Fe special to you?

I like the community here. Having a community is a big thing for me. The landscape is, of course, a huge bonus with the mountains and a night sky full of stars, but the landscape feeds more of my personal needs than my professional needs. My work is definitely more inspired by Santa Fe’s culture and the people.

If you could change one thing about Santa Fe, what would it be?

The things that sometimes frustrate me are what I also love about it and what makes it Santa Fe. I love how small it is, but that’s also what makes it hard sometimes, feeling like there’s limited professional expansion. Sure, it would be nice if there was more photo work, but that would mean it was a bigger city and the community would be different. Being in a small town can sometimes give me cabin fever and make me feel stuck, but I always miss it when I’m gone. I leave and I go somewhere for work and it’s fun, but leaving helps me understand how good the quality of life is here.

What are you passionate about outside of your craft?

My family has a restaurant in San Antonio, so I grew up around food, cooking, and baking with my mom. I love to do that stuff. I enjoy spending time with my friends and getting coffee with people. Or, I like to get outside and hike, but I don’t do it every weekend. It happens when I can make it happen.

At the end of the day, why do you do what you do?

There’s that phrase, “do what you love and you won’t work a day in your life.” But I believe that when you do what you love, you work every day. You work harder. There are moments that are tougher than others, where it seems like it's not working and it’s frustrating, but I truly love what I do and this is what I’ve always wanted.

Brandon Soder, Photographer