Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sonja Hague. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Sonja , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I get my resilience from my family. Being a first-generation American, it has been essential to me to ensure that my family’s sacrifice didn’t go to waste. My family’s journey to the United States wasn’t easy, but my mother made it here to provide a better life for me and my siblings. With all that she’s been through and all that she’s sacrificed, I owe it to her to never give up and to keep pushing to be the best I can be.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m a bit of a jack of all trades, in all honesty, but my ultimate passion is photography. I have been dreaming about where I am today since I was eight. I remember picking up my dad’s Minolta film camera, sitting in my bedroom window, and taking photos of a tree like it was yesterday. I’ve always been drawn to photography; it was the only way growing up to see the world. I would sit and read National Geographic, lots of travel magazines, TIME, and I cannot forget Vogue. Through these magazines, I could see the world, learn about it, and understand that anything is possible if you pursue it. For the last five years, I’ve been doing just that, following my dreams. I honestly can’t believe it sometimes; never in a million years did I think I’d be working in film, let alone becoming a photographer. I know my eight-year-old self is proud of how far we’ve come. At the same time, I am working on growing my fitness meets fashion digital magazine. My two greatest passions in life behind photography and cinematography would have to be fashion and fitness. I love fitness, but many of the images I see coming out of the fitness industry don’t match what I would feel comfortable shooting, so I’m trying a more fashion-forward approach with my company. There’s not much I can say about it right now because I’m currently working on my first issue, but I will say that it will change the way we think about fashion and fitness. Aside from building my brand, ORAGE Media, I am working on a few web series and short films. I’ll start principal photography on my short Rotten Seed in early 2024, so be on the lookout for it. It will be produced under Lemon Monkey Productions, my smaller company under the ORAGE umbrella.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three qualities I would say are the most impactful to me are perseverance, gratitude, and discipline. Perseverance is essential because there are times when no one is cheering for you or cares about what you’re doing, so you have to keep doing it for yourself. You have to be the one who stands up and says that even if I only have one person clapping for me, I will keep doing it as if I had the entire world behind me. It would help if you persevered through the rough times to get to the best times—gratitude, because you cannot receive more if you aren’t grateful for what you already have. If I never move further than where I am today, I will still be thankful for all the people I’ve met and the people I’ve been able to help. Gratitude because, as the cliche goes, it can always be worse. I practice gratitude every day because I know nothing in life is promised, so I want to be thankful for the time I have. Discipline because without it, we cannot accomplish our goals. I’d be lying if I said it’s easy to have discipline cause it’s not, especially when you’re seeing friends go out and do things you want to do. Still, I always ask myself if the 2-3 hours of fun will get me any closer to my goals, and if the answer is no, having discipline makes the disappointment a little easier.
My advice to anyone embarking on their journey is: have patience, take it daily, write it down no matter how small you may think something is, and lastly, surround yourself with people who will support you and hold you accountable. These qualities aren’t developed overnight, so be kind to yourself if you mess up or fall off. Know that nothing good was ever built in a day, but also practice and give yourself grace while developing these qualities because you’re worth it.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
In the past 12 months, I would say that my most significant area of growth has been letting go of the need to make everything perfect. I would love to say that I’m a fully recovered perfectionist, but the truth is I’m still struggling with it and imposter syndrome. That being said, I’ve been getting into the practice of releasing work and not beating myself up when it isn’t entirely “perfect.” I’ve also learned that the imperfect can be perfect and beautiful, and there’s no need to beat myself up when it’s not “perfect constantly.” I’ve also learned that no one can see the imperfections in the work, and it’s usually just in my head, so giving myself grace has also been something I believe I’ve improved on this year.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sonja-lark.kavyar.site/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/hautemrshague24?igshid=M2RkZGJiMzhjOQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
Image Credits
Models in photos: Kaymen Farris, Kaitlyn Orr, Paris Dior and Brenda Bari
