A TikTok user recently posted a short video requesting help. “My name is August. I’m a disabled trans man,” he began. “I like to take pictures, but I don’t know what to do with my body or my hands! Please send help.”
August’s video specifically addresses one person: posing guru David Sue. Suh, who boasts of 4 million followers on TikTok, is a photographer and promoter of the idea that there is no such thing as not being photogenic. He emphasizes that anyone can take a good picture if they have learned how to work their angles correctly.
Suh’s posing tips are simple, accessible and incredibly viral; Other users regularly duet her videos of how her advice has changed their self-presentation. TikTok is primarily a visual medium, giving Suh and his fans ample space to demonstrate the concept. And in fact, a few days later, it was August Geeking out In Suh’s response and posting Own photos Suh, who looked confident and posed in the pose, had suggested.
The process of suha starts all over your body so that you can feel a posture from within. On a Tuesday morning in April, a Los Angeles-based photographer was working at his Virgil Village studio with a client named Vy Ngo, a Santa Ana educator. She was small and casual in a dark tank top and loose pants, her legs bare but her face was carefully painted by a makeup artist who assisted Suha in her shoot. Suha ran Ango through a series of mirroring exercises before taking a solo photograph, so that she knew when he called her to bring out her nipples, relax her mouth, or kick her hip to make an S-curve with her body. Exactly what he was trying to say and how to implement his advice.
This level of engagement is not uncommon for him. Although he will work with the models like a series Presenting tips for plus size women, He is almost always in the frame with his clients and themes, breaking the barrier between artist and music. And his personality is stupid and self-deprecating both online and offline, a steady, friendly reminder that it’s okay to look a little silly while you’re having fun.
Suh is a self-taught dancer; He was interested in anatomy and movement long before he picked up the camera. And when she did, it was because of her dancing. Growing up watching groups like Jabbawockeez posting videos on YouTube, he wanted to do the same. So he created a PowerPoint presentation for his dad when he was a kid, explaining why the family needed a Sony NEX-7 digital camera, and it worked. “It became my camera because I was using it a lot,” says Suh now. “And then I just became a kid running around the school with a camera: taking annual book stuff, a paper rally, taking pictures of sports or taking photos with my friends.
(For Angela Cho / Times)
But while the techniques she learned from YouTube helped her learn how to think about light and composition, she found that when she photographed her friends, she was not always happy with the results – especially her female friends. “I invested heavily in taking the most beautiful photos, and then when I uploaded my album [to Facebook], I will receive private messages, ‘Hey, don’t you tag me?’ “Suh recalls.” I’ll be very confused. Because I was like, ‘Hey, this is a masterpiece.’
Eventually, he realized that “at the time, I was just looking at the relationship between me and the camera. I was behind here,” he says, pointing to the way the camera stood between the photographer’s face and everyone else’s. “The world outside of that no longer existed. I didn’t care what they felt – not that I didn’t care. I didn’t know it.”
When asked about the cause of their discomfort, friends said they often find it difficult to figure out what to do with their body in the picture. So Suha took what she learned from the dance and tried to help them figure out how to handle it so that they would feel comfortable – and look good in the final image. Nowadays, suh tips often include extending your silhouette length with extended legs or curved arms; If you have ’em, he advocates inclined hips to emphasize the curve – although he also offers “male” and “female” coded poses that can work for people of any gender.
Learning about posing helped Suha understand how complex and reliable photography is for many people. He now thinks of the process as a relationship matrix that he must manage. “I have a relationship with the person I photographed,” he says. “Their relationship with the camera. I have to keep in mind their previous relationship they had with their own photos. And then there’s their own self-relationship.”
(For Angela Cho / Times)
Suh traveled to the United States from Seoul in 2013 to attend UC Davis. There, he majored in design but failed miserably – once failing in a photography class. He explains that the most important thing he learned in psychology and business was not art or aesthetics. One class in non-verbal communication was particularly buzzing: “Posing, if we think about it on a skin-deeper level, can be very shallow,” says Suh. “We’re just entering poses for the lovely Instagram. But what really fascinates me is how we present ourselves. It’s body language. How are we communicating? Photos can be a way to express your creativity. And then through that, It then becomes a source of empowerment and confidence and of one’s own feelings. “
That idea of portrait photography is fundamentally revived by seeing him work with Ngo as a collaborative effort. Instead of expecting mute music, Suh gives agencies a way to work with their models to express themselves, transforming themselves from an object to an active participant in the creative process. A picture is something they make together, not something he or she takes for granted. During the hours they spend together, Ngo is willing to be bold, slow, suggest setups or try new poses without any hesitation. It’s scary to watch, but it’s about making art together Have fun.
After graduation, Suh moved to Sacramento and started a portrait studio where she honored her craft, working with non-model clients and trying to take photos that made them feel beautiful – but also caring and caring. “I always wanted a really luxury experience for my clients. I wanted the opposite of Messi’s walk-in appointment,” Suh said of his ethos. “How can I serve you? I can help you persuade in the deepest way possible? “
(For Angela Cho / Times)
He sees what he does as part of a larger project that encourages people (especially women) to treat themselves with kindness and care. And he has learned as much as his clients from this work. She notes that, like most men, she did not grow up thinking about how to look or feel good. Most guys, he says, only have their “achievement photos” – “me and a prize,” he says, “or, like, fish.” So they don’t understand what others are looking for in their lives when they ask to take a photo of themselves – they see it as some rote, part of a checklist or a public display as opposed to a search for deep authenticity and self-praise. . Suh says, “For me, I learned why it feels good.” And so, I connect. “
After joining TikTok at the end of 2019, he started connecting more widely. It’s not a marketing ploy, he says, but it happened because he wanted to “share my joy.” It was an emergency time, however, for a long period of time with COVID-19 to shut down personal imagery. TikTok became the most downloaded app of the early epidemic, and Suh’s cheerful urges to take care of and appreciate her were balms and hits. Whether epidemic or not, his customer waiting list soon became a year-long affair.
Suh moved to her current location, a fictional studio in the village of Virgil about six months ago; He realized that he wanted to live in a city where he could fulfill his big dreams, like his dream of doing a “queer eye” makeover-type show. But his customer roster is still focused on daily people, and he sees social media as a hobby, not his ultimate goal. Her relationship with her clients, and the feeling they take home with them – that’s her job, as well as her passion.
However, the “flattering” pose often pays homage to the modern Western flavor for the long, slender body, so that only certain curves are acceptable, while others must be masked or concealed. That kind of aesthetic concern doesn’t need to be categorized with the deep self-confidence and self-love that Suh speaks. So how does he define beauty, for his customers and for himself?
Su is a good speaker: thoughtful and funny, with a clear level of enthusiasm that makes the listener feel as passionate about his subjects, even briefly. Her answer to this question reveals a lifetime of work and thought – especially impressive when you think Suh is only 27.
“Beauty is like …” he begins, and then stops. “I like the similarities, and maybe it’s like the taste in the food here. When we think of good taste, it has a lot to do with my background. What I was fed, what my mother cooked for me, what the other kids were eating that looks good. You begin to build your palate; you become an adult, and you begin to explore. You go through all the personal development to create your taste and your palate.
“Now I have to think about all of them for the sake of beauty for my clients. [but] I know their perceptions of beauty can be very different from mine. I have to treat it with a lot of sensitivity, a lot of listening and empathy. “
(For Angela Cho / Times)
Her voice rises; He’s really into it now, talking about the heart of the work and why it’s important to him. “We’ve got moments of calm, self-confidence, feeling sexy. Sad, crazy, angry. Same thing, we don’t have It was seen We feel it ourselves. Everyone else has felt it. When we get angry, we don’t go back in the mirror: Let me see you angry. Or maybe if we’re getting closer to a partner, we don’t see that.
“We’ve never seen that. Everyone else has seen it, but if they tell us we can’t believe it. Our self-awareness is so strong. Through the pictures, I can show you that person. The first time you’re seeing you.”