Meet Asiana Weddington

We were lucky to catch up with Asiana Weddington recently and have shared our conversation below.

Asiana, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

Well I’ll start by saying I try to stray away from seeing purpose as something to “find”, or rather, as a definitive conclusion to be reached. Because honestly, I’ve found I feel the most purposeful in everyday moments rather than when I’m racing towards an achievement or type of persona. I feel purposeful when I’m learning a new skill, connecting with a person, overcoming a comfort zone, or just making an active effort to engage with my life.

In this way, I find a new purpose every day, in every moment. The belief that purpose is simply our engagement with our lives everyday is far more expansive than a singular purpose – the idea that my purpose is growth; my purpose is learning; my purpose is great achievement; pushing my boundaries; comfort zone; my talents and skillsets! That’s a really exciting idea.

So for me, I wouldn’t say my art is my purpose, but rather, my vehicle for engaging with my life and my purpose! It has been the greatest asset to my purpose! It provides great insight and great challenges across a variety of creative and technical mediums; It’s a great study of human connection, as well as great opportunity for active, collaborative connection; It is a platform for sharing what I’m learning with others, and in doing so, creating a space for them to hopefully continue their purpose in the same way.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a freelance director and photographer based in New York City, though recently, I’ve enjoyed more international travel to pursue my work. I’ve found that my visual style carries vibrant and rich visual tones, while the subject matter tends towards an observational perspective. I enjoy watching life as it happens, unposed, and I guess that has seeped into my creative perspective. Even in my commissioned work, I find that brands/people/properties are their most beautiful in a natural state, therefore I really thrive in natural lighting and settings.

I actually wrote my latest short film, The First Rain in May (2026), to take place mostly outdoors so that we could really embrace that visual style. And of course we also had to capture the beautiful locations we had the privilege of filming in Puerto Rico. My cinematographer (Liam Podos) hardly brought any lights at all actually. We actually ended up filming the climax of the film in a real rainstorm – the real First Rain in May! It was definitely my favorite moment of production. As a director, it was important to me that our actress (Megan Donaldson) felt as though she was actually alone in that adventure, so we also used a lot of telephoto lenses to stay further away from her and emphasize that observational perspective. That film will definitely be my best example of my creative style so far, both visually and narratively, and will be making its festival run in 2026!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I think the most advantageous approach I had at the beginning of my career was probably 1. being excited to learn, 2. being open minded about how my strengths and weaknesses could change, and 3. being respectful to my collaborators.

For example, I’ve never seen myself as technically or technologically gifted, but I ended up having a surprise knack for color grading, and because I was willing to learn anything at the beginning of my career, I now have this awesome technical niche that I really enjoy and still supports a lot of my freelance income! I also got into 3D photogrammetry for a while as a technical assistant, and that was a great learning experience. So if I had just decided that I had no interest in learning those technical skillsets, I wouldn’t have had all those opportunities.

I think “learning” is often defined as a process of achieving the right answer, but it’s really not – it’s the curiosity that you’ll never know the right answer! It’s like the theory that it’s impossible to achieve infinity. Basically, I’m saying that when you approach learning simply just – to learn – people really enjoy teaching you! They enjoy giving you more opportunities to learn! And that was what allowed me to learn really everything I know about my career. Just asking questions, asking questions, asking questions. Even the intuitive creativity that I arrived with was bolstered by others guiding it. Every successful person is truly just sitting on the shoulders of the successful people before them. A mentor/student relationship is one of those really cool relationships that everyone would be lucky to experience, no matter if you are playing the role of the student or the mentor. I hope I can pass that on someday.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I’m always looking for new collaborators! First off, I’m seeking a directing/photographer manager! I would love someone to come onboard and help me narrow my niche and clientele.

And in the commercial market, I’m definitely seeking clients that are open to a more intimate and creative approach to their branding. Even in high-end advertising, I’m very interested in getting away from the glossy, standard approach to advertising, and finding ways to put a product or person in the everyday world in a way that takes the audience out of the mindless commercial run they’re watching, and actually gets them thinking about the product in their lives! I feel similarly about my narrative work, and want to find more producers and editors who are comfortable working with innovative concepts that may not fit into conventional niches or platforms.

I would welcome connections at all levels of their careers, and recommend they reach out to me at my email: [email protected]!

Contact Info:

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