As one of Los Angeles’ upcoming names in the photography world, Sequoia Emmanuelle is a visionary and creator that continuously harnesses the power of creation flowing through her veins. As an artist, a limitless amount of inspiration is required to conjure up the Imaginarium of thoughts into a tangible reality right before you.
Growing up in Minnesota, she recalls her childhood as a bubble of unconventional, fun, and eccentricity. “I grew up as the daughter of an artist; it was just my mother and me until one day, she met Phil, who later became my stepfather and another fellow Boheme.”
Sequoia’s interest in the arts continued to develop in their household under the combined care of her mother and stepfather. This is where it all began for her, and she firmly set her cap on grasping the camera’s power by learning more about what she can about her soon-to-be photography. Since then, she hasn’t put it down, “Phil and I would do photo shoots together where I would start getting involved in styling.” In turn, Sequoia later began styling her friends for impromptu shoots, where she started composing the artistic direction she wanted for her friends and, eventually, herself.
From then, it became a collision of fine art, film, contact sheets and editing photos that became part of Sequoia’s daily routine. As she got older, her knowledge grew. By then, Sequoia decided to fully pursue the arts when photography wasn’t the most gender-friendly occupation. Packing up her bags, she moved to Los Angeles and, later on, became Sequoia Emanuelle, one of the hottest photographers Hollywood has seen as of late. Her unique style combines haute couture, glamour, and fantasy all rolled into one.
“It’s always about experimenting and trying to incorporate what I like and was interested in surrealism, fashion, and glamour—at the same time, taking inspiration from noteworthy image curators such as Nick Knight and David La Chapelle.
For Sequoia, the magic of creating an image worthy of her subject has always been a meaningful event, emotional in plenty of ways, because it peels off another layer of the person’s character. One of her most memorable experiences was capturing one of her dearest friends in a pose that showed him in a different light. According to her, ” This has always been the case all along.”
While creative juices need to be constantly flowing to pursue a career solely based on the fine arts, other aspects are required to turn a novice photographer into one of the most talked-about names in the creative industry. Sequoia discovered this later upon her move to Los Angeles, where she saw that to be a success, she needed to be tough and business savvy to move her career in the direction she wanted it to go.
” I grew up with so much creativity, but that didn’t come with a 101 in business development and structure.”While her work led her to collaborate with the most prolific names in Hollywood, like Dita von Teese and Laverne Cox. She decided to create the Sequoia Emmanuelle trademark, by building a solid foundation and honing her creativity simultaneously, which is a hard lesson in itself with plenty of learning curves that made her find her voice which is why she is on her way to be one of Hollywood’s finest photographers
For more on Sequoia Emmanuelle:
Related links:
