A successful finance executive in New York City with degrees from Harvard and Columbia, Sonia Toledo has accomplished much in her professional career. It is only when one peeks behind the veil of her professional persona that her true artistic anima is revealed. Having grown up in a household where words were kept to a minimum, Sonia has found that the most effective way to communicate her inner thoughts is her photography. While expression through photography has always been a significant part of Sonia’s life, it wasn’t until a tumultuous personal time in 2008 that she started looking at her art as a way of communicating the importance of life as a journey in personal transformation.

Process

Sonia embraces many forms of photographic expression, including alternative processes and photographic composites. She uses her photographs to magnify what is often overlooked.

To her, alternative processes are a form of alchemy in which light and noble metals transform subject matter. The ritual of mixing chemicals and brushing them onto virgin paper embeds intention for the protection and healing of her wounded or endangered subjects.

Sonia’s photographic composites are created from images that she captures while traveling to exotic locations all around the globe. Most often, her pieces incorporate both land and underwater scenery. For each composite, Sonia begins with a base image that evokes a particular strong feeling – usually nostalgic in nature.ﾠ While studying that image, Sonia brings in elements that help her convey that yearning for what is no longer. Her composites stay true to each location. Some works come together in just a few days, while others take several months to assemble. The process is complete once the piece fully conveys the experience she felt while photographing.

Philosophy

Sonia finds inspiration in the power of women, relations between the sexes, and the primeval beauty of nature. Each trip is an initiation, each locale a distillation of the world we live in.ﾠ Her work is meant to give voice to nature and its inhabitants.ﾠ Sonia wants observers of her work to feel empathy for the world around them -- to sense its magic and feel a deep connection to it.ﾠ Her work is imbued with references to symbology, tarot divination and astrology, all of which she uses as tools for self-discovery. While humans are often obsessed with finding scientific explanations for what we see, hear and feel, Sonia focuses instead on intuition and the experience of perception itself.ﾠ If her work can break people of their conditioned thinking, then it has achieved its purpose.