McLean Photographer Masters "Art of Lighting"

Suna Lee wins awards for portraits by Maria Said

Visitors to Suna Lee's studio in McLean immediately feel that they have not walked into a business but have stumbled into someone's private home. The staircase with its banisters leads up from one side of the room. A fireplace and a large plant are on the other side, next to a windowsill with a vintage style photograph of a mother and child. After sitting on the couch or on the bed upstairs, visitors relax into less corporate attitudes.
And with the flash of a camera, Lee captures the intimate moment.

A professional photographer, she has just won two first-place awards in the 17-state Southeast Professional Photographers Association and four first-place awards and one second-place award in the Virginia Professional Association. Most of her photographs are portraits-parents with their new infant, bridal couples, and nudes. She said that she has worked with some clients for years and has photographed them as they move through various stages of life.

Catching Beauty
"Nobody's face is totally symmetrical," said lee. She explained with light, she can make the face or the body more beautiful-by using light to make the face more symmetrical or shorten the nose or accentuate certain features. "The brush stroke of the photographer," said Lee, "is lighting."

She uses this skill when approaching the boudoir portraits, which are intimate shots of women taken in the nude, and the skill, she said, depends on finding the beauty of each individual woman. One time, a middle-aged woman with little self-esteem came in for photographs. When she went home with the pictures, her husband called Lee and told her, "I have tried to tell my wife how beautiful she was. She didn't believe me. But now you gave us romance back in marriage." On another occasion, a woman who was five feet tall and weighed about 260 pounds came into Lee's after already having gone to eight different studios. She wanted an intimate portrait for her husband but was discouraged and had not yet been happy with any of the photographs taken. "She tole me that she probably would not buy anything," said Lee.

Love Story
But she bought an album, said Lee, and her photograph made it into the Washington Post when they wrote an article on boudoir portraits. "[Lee] has such an ease in what she does, she puts the client at ease too," said Julia Crull, who recently went to the studio with her husband and her infant girl. She said that Lee listened carefully to what the Crulls wanted and shot photos that would portray a message about the love between the different members of the family, especially the mother and daughter.

Lee's work is on display at Tyson's Galleria near Macy's and Legal Seafood. She can be reached at her studio at 760-4988.