Photographer David Suh chatted with us about his craft

In a world of filters, photographer David Suh is going natural

Video Transcript

DAVID SUH: Some people try to label me and-- not try. It's OK if they do. They label me as a body positivity photographer. And it's a byproduct of what I do. It's a byproduct of the exclusive space I create. But my idea isn't to just have someone come in and tell them, you have to love your body. You have to force-- like, I don't force them to see something that they don't want to.

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Hi, my name is David Suh. I'm a portrait photographer in LA. And I'm also a content creator helping people feel aligned with their beauty and their identity. And I help them express that creatively because we all want to be seen and heard. There are many parts of the photography industry and tangent industries as well, like the modeling industry, Hollywood, media, social media that is still very traditional in its way and its thinking.

There are the way things are taught still, let's say, in the industry of photography and modeling. I still think a lot of the education is very black and white. It's very binary of, this is what you can do. This is what you can't do. That's something I get a lot often is, David, I'm a plus size woman. How do I pose? Like, what does that mean? What does it mean to you to be a plus size woman?

Because if I just give you a handful of poses right now, that's me projecting my definition of what plus size is. It's me making that assumption for you on what plus size women want and don't want, when it should be different for every single person. It's like this whole systematic thing of, yeah, this is the beauty standard. And then what influences what? And therefore, that's how we teach in these industries.

And if you really think about it, it's like, wow, a lot of these things are assumed. And they can be challenged. It shouldn't be so binary in its way. And that's what I like to do a lot. Oprah said it best. She said, at the end of the day, everyone wants to be seen and heard, right? And if we want to be seen and heard, we have to learn to speak. And before we even speak, we have to feel like there's a place for our voice that belongs, right?

And that's what I do for my clients. I open up a safe space for them to even start speaking and saying, OK, how do you want to be-- how do you want to be seen, right? Because not everyone wants to look taller. Not everyone wants to look skinnier. Not every woman wants to look sexy in a way of whatever magazine would portray them as, right? And then if they do, also, I acknowledge that.