Today we’d like to introduce you to Sara Eulalia.
Hi Sara, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I started photographing by 13yo in Brazil. By 16 I was shooting weddings and studying english as a second language. By 17 I started a minor in Technology in Photography, finished in 2022, and picked up a mix of stuff along the way: museology, framing, exhibition work and fashion photography. My projects always focused on people and their cultural backgrounds.
In 2022 I decided to spend a year in the United States and because of fate I didn’t go come back home. I decided to pause fashion and apply my skills on weddings as I felt free to be loudly queer and creative here. I have built my business in two countries by the same philosophy. Creating for love and not just money and I believe when you are an artist to be successful is the result of it. Collaborating, asking strangers to be photographed, talking to people and not just waiting to be discovered.
13 years in now and what keeps me doing this isn’t the movement of it, it’s the people, it is so freeing to have a career people want to hire you for a happy moment of their lives. I’ve studied how to get people comfortable enough in front of a camera that they stop performing and just exist. That’s the actual skill. Anyone can photograph a kiss. Getting someone to forget you’re there is harder.
I’m Brazilian, queer, based in Richmond, and a big part of my work is destination weddings, which means I’m constantly adjusting to new places, new cultures, different expectations of what a wedding even looks like. It keeps the work from getting stale and it is the core of my personality.
I am a traveler and extremely hunger for cultural exchange.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Life is what you believe it is. I don’t think anyone can do it all the smooth way. You just do it. You believe it’s gonna work one day and the next you crash out and think you are not enough.
Being an extrovert helps because even scared you just do what needs to be done. To learn a second language, to face immigration, to understand a new way of existing from scratch 2 thousand miles away from your family and friends.
Looking back it doesn’t feel like a struggle tho. To be perseverant is a daily practice and make the blue days easier.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I specialize in multicultural and queer wedding photography and I am known for blending editorial with documentary, natural light, and playful work with strong shadows.
I am proud of my approach and of making people feel seen. I am proud of being resilient and of encouraging people to believe in their capability of doing anything they set their minds to. I am proud of my openness to capturing anything in front of me, and for saying no when someone doesn’t align with the good things I stand for, even when it costs me money.
I believe we all fit into groups, and I love being part of so many.
I’d say my ability to adapt and my deep passion for ancestral traditions are what let my eye catch the details of someone living the moment, not someone just working through a checklist.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Life is worth living and it means you gotta close your eyes and let it cry.
One day I wrote down from somewhere – when you say goodbye, doors open to say hello.
To me, risk is what makes the heart beat.
I’ve said no more than once because of things that don’t align with what I stand for. That’s a risk too. When younger I ‘d feel that not being adored by everybody would be too riskful.
More mature now, I understand that I don’t think of myself as a risk-taker exactly. I think of myself as someone who trusts the doors that open after the ones that close and I will close them even when it hurts me if I feel there’s something better waiting on the other side.
Pricing:
- Elopements start at $3,300
- Weddings start at $5,100
- Destination weddings start at $8,000
- Couple sessions start at $790
Contact Info:
- Website: https://eulaliaportraits.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eulaliaportraits/
