Sinjun Strom is a photographer currently based in New York City. I had been following Sinjun for a while before we met, discovering her work through mutual friends. I was always in awe of her photography, in particular her self-portraits. They evoked a sense of raw, unfiltered honesty, only to be embellished by her distinctive sense of style, vibrant use of colour and wide array of locations. A few months later, we met in New York and easy to say I’ve been an even bigger fan since.

So I asked my uncle who used to do work as a photographer part-time and he started explaining the basics of film photography to me. Prior to this, I hadn’t felt like I could engage with digital photography because the process wasn’t tactile enough, but after hearing my uncle talk about film photography I was so intrigued.

When I was 13 I started bidding on 35mm SLR’s on E-bay. I don’t know why but research led me to a Pentax k1000 and I was trying so hard to get one but all of these older people with more money than me were outbidding me. I complained to my Dad about it (who had no idea I was even trying to buy a camera) and he said “Oh really? I have a Pentax k1000 in my studio. I’ve had it since I was 16 so you’d have to take care of it, but if you want to use it you can.” The prints I got back from the processor were trash, but after seeing them I was IMMEDIATELY hooked and here we are!

And what has the journey been like so far, to reach the point you’re at now? 

Obviously as a young woman, it has not been the easiest journey. It also doesn’t help that I present myself in a feminine way and wear obnoxiously bright coloured clothing. It sounds silly, but people have treated me differently in a professional setting because of it. I have also been specifically asked to dress in black clothing and I just won’t. Why? It doesn’t affect how I do my job. But beyond those weird little things, I have found myself being talked down to no matter how hard I work. There’s an old school mentality from older people working in my field that you need to suffer before you can reach the point of success and that as a young person, you shouldn’t be working in higher positions.

While working as a producer, I have had men specifically try to make a point of asking about my age and make me feel weird about it on set. Even though the shoot is going smoothly. I’ve had men not listen to my warning signs about things that needed to be done and then when shit hit the fan, they liked to put the blame on me because I’m “the young one”. I’ve argued back, I’ve straight up yelled at a superior about how they can’t treat me the way that they have, and I’ve tried to have constructive conversations. And the funny part is that no matter how much you stick up for yourself, you get looked at as being a “bitch” or “difficult to work with”. I know it’s 2020 but some people really have some habits ingrained in them that they didn’t even know they were conditioned to have. People who you thought were progressive sometimes ultimately can’t handle a young woman telling them what to do for a variety of reasons.

But among the hard times, there have been really amazing exceptions who have seen me for my ideas and my skill set. They have worked with me because they know they can teach me the small things I don’t know and that what really matters is that I already understand the bigger picture. And because of those exceptions, I have learned to read the job offers I get. I filter out which ones are beneficial for me and which ones will just turn into another frustrating or traumatising and toxic experience. It was a hard lesson to learn that not every opportunity that comes your way is a “good” one.

Tell me about New York. What's it been like living there and creating there?

I think it can be inspiring for some people to be able to have all of these things going on for you to absorb 24/7. And it is, but I also had to catch myself and make sure that I wasn’t looking at other people’s work or creating work that was very “New York”. I’m not from here. It’s not my place.

I like meeting like-minded people and people who have the same weird interests that I do, but you also meet a lot of artists here who really like talking about what they do, what you do, themselves, etc and it gets exhausting. I’m also very interested in the technical side of photography but I swear to god if one more dude asks me about what film I shoot or what camera I use, I’m gonna blow my head off. I love going back home and meeting people who just have random normal conversation and make an effort to ask genuine questions.

The only reason I’m here is because the opportunities I wanted were here. But I think times are changing now and that’s not the only way to be as an artist anymore. New York isn’t the final frontier and I’m slowly making my transition out. I prefer to have space. I have big goals and I wanna build BIG THINGS haha. I don’t have a problem finding inspiration, no matter where I’m at. I just want to be comfortable and not worry about money anymore.

When I first was introduced to your work mutual friends, the images they spoke so highly about in particular, were your self- portraits. When did you begin creating these, and what was the driving force behind them? 

I honestly started making them because I had been through some traumatic experiences that really set me off. I found myself at a point mentally that felt scary to me and I decided to say fuck it and give myself the time I needed to heal. I worked for three months straight and saved up $15,000 to be able to travel for nine months to chill and make work for no reason. I hadn’t been able to make work that way since I was in high school and it made me think about the fact that I was happiest when I was 13, taking photographs of myself just to learn more about lighting and cameras. At that point, it was too stressful to add in a third element like a model so I spent a lot of time photographing myself. I didn’t realise until I was in college that the work I made by myself in high school was very therapeutic for me because I was slowing down, thinking, and processing while I was making it. So when I was travelling in 2018, I decided to revert back to that process and spend a lot of time by myself, with myself and photographing myself. And it really did help me a lot.

Is there a process behind the self-portraits? 

When I was traveling I was usually in a place for a long period of time, so I would let myself experience each place I was in, absorb it, and use that as inspiration for the image I would shoot there. I found myself usually shooting them on the last day or two in each country. I also took mental notes on lighting and when it hit certain locations best and I took note of the weather and when I could shoot the photo I wanted.

I’m sure they’ve evolved over the years but looking at them more recently, they have a very distinctive style – how did you go about developing and creating this style so unique to you?

What’s weird about these recent self portraits is that I made them more organically than I usually do. Normally I find myself being very controlling, detail oriented, and wanting everything in the photo to be a specific way. But I let myself just make these based off of every scenario I was in and I challenged myself to spend little to no money making them. It was mostly up to the environment and available light. So once I started scanning them 6 months into those travels, I started to see that they were weirdly cohesive. That even though each photo was its own scenario, I was going about them in the same way. And I think that happened because I always do things my way. I always think about what I want. And so if you keep making things you like, they naturally start to work together in a way.

At the age we’re living in, as everything becomes more saturated but also increasingly inter-connected, why do you feel self- expression is important? 

No matter what time we’re in, self expression is extremely important. I believe it is one of the most freeing things there is. It’s even better when you are doing it from a place that is genuine and honest. Without honesty, people can sometimes find it hard to connect with you and your work. And if it isn’t genuine, people can read that too. But regardless of how other people are seeing your work, it ultimately shouldn’t affect the creative decisions you make. That work is yours and should stay that way. If you’re not making it for you, then what’s the point?

And that being said, why is self-expression important to you?

To be honest, I don’t think I would be the level headed person I am without it. Making work has kept me patient, it has challenged me, and it has helped me maintain a routine that has helped my mental health. Making work really has been the constant in my life and it has been an outlet from a young age that helped me with the hard shit I was dealing with at home. I have caught myself wondering about if I hadn’t found this outlet, would I have seriously snapped already? But it’s not good to think about the “what if’s” and to just be grateful that I do have it.

You released a book of self-portraits called Exotic. Talk to me a bit about this! 

It's a 66-page hardcover book of my self-portraits in collaboration with Superposition Gallery. I had come back from travelling and started processing, scanning, and posting the self-portraits I had. I knew they were strong but I didn’t think about them as something I wanted to showcase. But then I started to receive a lot of comments and messages about how people wished they could buy a book of these images. Because I hadn’t realised until I actually started scanning them, but I had taken 77 portraits while I was gone. Unbelievable! It didn’t even feel like I made that many! Then my brain started working. I had participated in a group show at Superposition Gallery and I knew the founder, Storm Ascher, from college. For me, my work is very personal and I really don’t like working on shows with people I don’t know. So I reached out to her casually and asked if she would be interested in a solo show and maybe even a hardcover book if we could afford it. And she immediately showed her support and said “I was wondering when you were going to do something with this work Sinjun! It’s obviously a solid series.” and I laughed and said “Well I don’t know!! I was just making them, I didn’t think about the end goal.” 

From there I worked for four months to scan all of the images and clean them up for print. I sent all of them to Storm to start working on selects for the show itself, while I worked on laying out the book. The main reason I wanted to do the book is because I wanted a way for people to see all of the work physically. I prefer to see my images printed and in this case with this work, all of these images had value. So I designed everything and did a couple of approval passes through Storm and asked for feedback and that was all very easy. But then I realised I should have some sort of written component. I really do not like writing bios or talking about myself. And it felt even weirder in a book with photos that were all of me. So I reached out to another close friend and artist, Claire Christerson, who I have had a lot of conversations with and who I really feel fully understands my work and why I make it. I reached out to Claire to write the Foreword about whatever they wanted. And when they sent it to me, it was honestly so perfect that I started crying reading it. Because not only did they vocalise my feelings, but they also brought some new things to light that I hadn’t even fully realised yet. All in all, it was a full family affair and I am really grateful for the opportunity and the experience.

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