For sophomore musical theatre major Sarah Johnson photography is about more than telling a story with simple snapshots. It’s about opening people up and discovering who they are at their very core.
“I think photography is about capturing people as they truly are,” Johnson said. “It isn’t about the right angle making (someone) look thinner, more mature, less award or more natural. It’s about capturing [them] as a person.”
Johnson developed an appreciation for photography at a young age. Thinking back to her pre-adolescent years, Johnson said she could hardly remember something if there wasn’t a picture to set the scene.
During high school, Johnson dabbled in portrait photography and provided free senior photo shoots to friends. She carried a camera with her everywhere she went, sometimes to the dismay of close friends and classmates.
“I would take it into classes and if one of my friends said something funny, I would take a picture of their face,” Johnson said. “It became annoying for all of my friends in high school.”
Around the same time, Johnson became interested in performance photography after scrolling through several artistic photos of a famous friend.
“My friend Manna Nichols in on Broadway in Allegiance,” Johnson said. “We grew up in the same church, same schools and she kind of took me under her wing.
“I saw pictures that a photography friend of hers put up on Facebook and it sparked my interest in the performance side of photography.”
Since entering college, the freedom to explore different areas of photography presented Johnson with several unprecedented opportunities.
Being a part of the theatre department, it was easy for Johnson to get her foot in the door freshman year. Johnson’s first project on campus was photographing the Reflections show in December of 2014.
“It was a combined dance and scenes show for the Beginning Acting and dance class finals as well as our Foundational Dance Theatre (FDT),” Johnson said. “During a dress rehearsal, I just started taking pictures of it because I had a camera and I could and I liked it. People ended up liking them and it kind of took off from there.”
Johnson has since photographed dress rehearsals of Into the Woods and Elevate for the department. She has also completed two individual photography projects – one highlighting the effects of finals week on students and another telling the stories of Disney characters through actors in the theatre department.
If Johnson wasn’t busy enough, juggling academics and projects, she’s thrown herself over the edge with the desire to launch her own photography business on campus and in the Nashville community.
“I’m in the process of creating a business,” Johnson said. “It’s hopefully going to be called Thousands of Words Photography. A picture’s worth a thousand words, and I have lots of pictures and I think there’s more than a thousand words per picture.”
Johnson said she believes that the eyes are the windows to the soul. While she enjoys performance photography, she said actor headshots and personal photos capture the micro-expressions of someone and shows who they are at their core.
Thousands of Words Photography, Johnson said, will focus on selling someone’s individuality. She plans to focus on headshots for artists and performance photography in theatrics.
“I never say ‘smile for the camera’ or ‘cheese,’” Johnson said. “I tell them ‘Don’t just smile for the camera, think about something that makes you smile.’ It’s a lot more psychological than people realize.
“It’s not about capturing the smile; it’s about capturing what’s behind it. I just find people so fascinating. Being able to take what I find so interesting and put it into a thing that makes other people happy or think or whatever is awesome.”
For her business, Johnson is working with a student from Belmont to create a logo, getting a copyright for her business name and looking into Tennessee’s laws for businesses and sole proprietorships.
Johnson has a Facebook page for Thousands of Words Photography and is taking a mentorship this summer from Carissa Chrzan of Carissa Lorraine Photography. Chrzan did Johnson’s senior photos in 2014 and offered her a mentorship after seeing her work published on Facebook.
“I’m still in musical theatre and I love performing,” Johnson said. “I want to do that, but I also want to do photography as a career choice.
“Whatever takes me whichever direction. I would love to get training in photography but I’m definitely not going to give up musical theatre any time soon.”
Photo courtesy of Sarah Johnson