Occasionally, you come across someone who has an eye for fashion. They may have an eye for style similar to yours, or simply a cool aesthetic, but immediately, you get hooked on their page. That’s what I thought about Sophie Elgort when I came across her work a few years ago. With thousands and thousands of Instagram followers, Sophie has shot some of the biggest campaigns in the world. I met her at an event a few years ago in Manhattan (I was so little!) and knew I had to include her in a project eventually. Now that I stared M.I.N.T., it’s important for me to involve people in every industry.
Thank you for letting me interview you Sophie, and I can’t wait for you to join us on a new panel soon!
Everyone has access to a camera now on their phones and especially with Instagram photography is definitely something that people really appreciate which is cool.
I think it’s important to remember that when people post on social media you are seeing only glimpses of their lives – just because it looks perfect doesn’t mean it is so it’s so important not to compare yourself. Social media is a great, I love it – use it to express yourself and show your work but take everything you see with a grain of salt.
One of my biggest faults is thinking too much before taking action and I work to counter this every day, so the advice I’d give is if you have an idea that you’re really excited about, try it out and take action right away. Someone once told me if you’re going to fail to “fail fast” and then rework the idea and try again. If you don’t take action at all, there’s no way you can succeed.
It does. With photography, social media is such an important platform for me to show my work – not only the work that’s published but also outtakes and my own projects. It is also really useful for staying in touch with people – I’m meeting so many different people every day and I like to keep up with everyone but it’s physically impossible but Instagram makes it a bit easier.
Opening an honest dialogue at an early age about confidence and body image is so important – these issues need to addressed so that teens know that these are REAL issues, that they’re not the only ones feeling the way they’re feeling and that what they’re feeling is not insignificant or irrelevant. Even as an adult it can be difficult when you see an image of a person who you think has the ideal body and it can make you feel like you’re not good enough. I also think it’s important to remember that to get that one perfect image maybe they took 100 images and picked only the best one to post. Even if the person does look a certain way that you admire, everyone is different and you have no idea what other things that person might be going through or what other challenges they’re dealing with. These are definitely important topics to start talking about early.
THANK YOU SOPHIE! We can’t wait to have you join us on an upcoming M.I.N.T. panel!
Xo,
Alexa