Saraxvisuals, when photography becomes your life
Sara Waisungnoen Thomas, 19, is an emerging photographer who has followers from both Kazakhstan where she began photography, and Canada where she is currently studying. @saraxvisuals has over 1500 followers on her Instagram and it continues to grow.
The majority of her childhood was spent in Thailand, Ukraine, Slovakia, China, USA, and Kazakhstan before coming to Canada. It was in high school that she took up photography and decided to specialize in portrait work.
“It just spoke more to me than other [forms of photography]. I really like how facial expression really helps to control the atmosphere and mood of an image,” said Thomas.
Photography is a way to take things off of her mind and channel her focus and energy into creation.
She starts off with brainstorming on the mood she wants to convey to the audience, be it energetic or melancholic. She then looks for the location, and a model that could express this feeling she is after. Sometimes she finds multiple works on Instagram which she then uses as a mood board to create her own work.
“The fear of failing inspires me…I think that everything now is in progress of something greater. Right now, it’s all just trial and error but in due time it will come together. That’s why I can’t show you my best work but I have one so far that I am proud of.” said Thomas.
It wasn’t so long ago that she was in love with basketball, played in all tournaments in high school, and thought her life would be tied to that world. But then she had a sudden change in life, and switched her passion for photography and videography instead. It wasn’t an easy transition, but it already happened so she had to come to accept it the way it was.
“Imagine if your life was dominated by something, since you were young, and then in less than one year you stopped doing it.”
On the left side from the mirror in her room, on a tiny plastic hook hangs the weight of her achievements. A mix of gold, silver, and bronze medals so heavy it’s surprising how they didn’t break the hook. They make her feel humble, and at the same time sad. She brought them to Halifax to motivate herself, but she also said,
“I don’t feel like those are my achievements. It feels like those were achievements of Sara when she was 15, 16, and 17.”
She seeks out her happiness in family, sunrises, bubble tea, and supportive people.
Thomas hopes to stay in photography for a while. It’s something she doesn’t get tired of doing no matter how tired she is or how many hours of sleep she’s got. Recently she made a video about past love, where she wrote a poem and created visual scenes for it. It caused an overwhelmingly positive reaction from her audience, and she is considering making more of those from now on.
