As he continues to explore his practice in portrait photography, Ted Sun is naturally being led to exploring fashion, and considering more how he wants to style the model. "I began reaching out to designers that caught my eye, and came across designer Christopher Uvenio, whose work I'd noticed had been featured many times on BeautifulMag,” Ted explains his new explorations in fashion photography. “We met up for coffee and instantly connected, and collaborated on an editorial shoot together. He provided me a bunch of fun designs to work with, including the silver hand-made mesh shirt for this shoot.”
THERE ARE APPROXIMATELY 196 COUNTRIES ON EARTH, SPREAD OVER 7 CONTINENTS. IT WOULD TAKE QUIET SOME TIME TO VISIT THEM ALL, BUT IT ISN’T IMPOSSIBLE. TED SUN HAS DONE ABOUT ONE THIRD OF IT, AND IT TOOK HIM 5 YEARS. WHICH COMES DOWN TO ROUGHLY 14 COUNTRIES BY YEAR. TED DID NOT ONLY VISIT THE COUNTRIES, HE ALSO TOOK TONS OF PICTURES. IN FACT IT IS SAFE TO STATE THAT HIS LOVE FOR TRAVELING INITIATED HIS PASSION FOR PHOTOGRAPHY.
Ted Sun has visited 70 countries across all 7 continents and did all that over a 5-year stretch from 2006 to 2011. He did this in company of his camera and took loads of photos, always looking for beautiful and interesting things. It’s often said that practice makes perfect.
Something that definitely applies to Ted’s work. How could it be otherwise. Taking so many pictures over such a time period can only lead to an enormous progress. Which eventually led to a whole new journey for Ted in 2012.
It is often said that once you start to undertake big travels and spend extensive time abroad, the need to visit new places will stay in your blood. Since 2012 Ted Sun has been traveling in a very different universe. Was he first mostly active as a photographer during his many journeys to other countries and cultures, currently Ted occupies his time mostly with portrait photography.
Which doesn’t necessarily means he has completely settled down. Native Angeleno as he is, Ted lives and works in Los Angeles where he has a studio in the Hollywood Hills, near Sunset Plaza, but frequently crosses the continent to his other hometown New York City. Here in the trendy neighborhood Chelsea Ted has founded a second studio.
Traveling and undertaking journeys can be an exciting thing to do without knowing where you might end up. In every aspect. Ted Sun first practiced visual arts while in college at Princeton. There he took a class in photography but his focus was more on video-film making. Nevertheless he graduated with a degree in psychology. After college Ted entered the fast world of advertising, managing ad campaigns for leading agencies and brands for 6 years. It was advertising that brought Ted from sunny California to New York.
While in NYC he left the industry in 2005, trying all kinds of freelance work before picking up part-time work as a videographer. All of a sudden Ted found himself in a very flexible work schedule, which allowed him to start a new adventure in traveling which, as said before, eventually brought him back to his passion of photography. So you see, travelling can indeed bring you to an unexpected outcome.
His constant quest for beautiful and interesting things have initiated a curiosity in ted that eventually led to portrait photography. But not the standard work. No. Ted Sun combines his ability of catching the beauty in his surroundings with an experience of seeing beauty in people. Which results in some extra-ordinary work. Such as these breathtaking three series – Underwater, Joshua Tree and White Light. Poetic photography with respect for both model and scenery.
A combination of two elements in which both model and background are hero without fighting each other for attention. Writer henry Miller once said that one's destiny is never a place but a new way of seeing things. Something Ted Sun definitely has embraced.
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