Artist's Background: Sarah Hooker is a small town photographer based in West Asheville North Carolina. Hooker attended Virginia Intermont College where she earned a BA in photography and digital imaging. Although she w has been artistic all her life, her high school photography class is what led her to her love for photography. Her favorite photography experience was when she traveled with her classmates to Hatteras Island and Arizona, she was surrounded by many inspiring people and locations. After college she had many different jobs from cashiering to real estate, but then she had the chance to open Sarah Hooker Photography. Within a year, her business grew and she was able to do photography full time. Style: Hooker focuses on small business and individual portrait photography. She enjoys taking head shots and senior photos. In all of Hooker's photos, she focuses in on her model but also on her background. A majority of her photos have a nature themed background. Her photos range from gloomy, dark water in the background to a bright, vibrant golden hour. Hooker also takes photos of a very diverse group of women. Each photograph is beautifully different in their own way.
Philosophy: Sarah Hooker mainly focus' on taking portrait photos. Through her photos, she tells the story of her subject. Whether they are a senior about to graduate high school, or a couple who just got engaged. She believes that the portraits she takes should reflect who you are, and be unique to the subject. She may have the same style of photography for each picture, but none will look the same. Influences: After viewing Sarah Hooker's images, I really wanted to focus on the eyes of the model. When I was taking my final project photos, I really tried to capture emotion within my model's (Sam) eyes. As I was editing, I made sure to brighten the eyes to show the light reflections. I also made sure to focus on lighting. While I was editing my photos I tried to make the water surrounding Sam dark but make sure that she still was visible in the photo. In the future, I will make sure to keep using these tools to improve my photos. Sources: - https://www.sarahhooker.com/blog/2017/8/20/7r3w5l5pe2ennp0lnxea8t9p66vsd0 "Portraits in the Water" Shoot Compare and Contrast: Sarah Hooker's photos are much better than mine, but I feel that I did a pretty good job at replicating them but still incorporating my style. My favorite photo that I took is "Breathe" because I think that this is the most similar photo to the one Sarah Hooker took. My least favorite photo I took is "Float" because Sam had a really hard time staying in position because she was floating in the water, the dress also wasn't as big as the one in Hooker's photo so it didn't have the effect of the flowing dress. The hardest thing to replicate was the color and position of the water. I took my photos in a lake so there was seaweed at the bottom I tried my best to edit out the green color, but it does not look as good as Hooker's photos. Overall I think I did a good job at replicating the photos. Personal Artist Statement: This is Sam. Sam is my friend from my club volleyball team. She is loud and spontaneous. I love these pictures of Sam because they show her true beauty. While taking and editing these photos I made sure to use color contrast and the rule of thirds. My favorite part of these photos is the light reflection in her eyes.