FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY
FINE ART PHOTOGRAPY
Biography
I am a self-taught photographer born and raised in Brockton, MA. Though my career as a fine artist formally began in 2018, my journey as an artist started when I was a child. At age 4, I discovered my gift for drawing and devoted a minimum of 5 hours each day to sketching. When I was 9 years old, I attended an after-school art program at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton. It was my first visit to an art museum, and the experience was transformative.
That evening, I declared that my work would one day be seen in museums and galleries around the world. From then on, each drawing session included imagining my art in those spaces. My first public showing came at age 13, when a sketch of my first-grade school portrait was exhibited at Brockton’s Westgate Mall. Yet, like many childhood dreams, mine faded with adulthood, and I stopped drawing at age 19. When I was 24, my creative spirit reawakened through graphic design and, ultimately, photography.
I ventured into photography in 2013 when one of my nephews refused to take his high school senior portraits unless I took them. He was convinced that I could do it. He said: “You can do it! I have faith in you. I’m telling you; you’ve got this auntie.” I did not want to disappoint my nephew, so I did some research on portrait shooting, borrowed a co-worker’s camera, took him to a local park and captured his portraits. The rest as they say is history.
In 2018, I met my mentor (affectionately known as my "fine art mom"), Martha Tepper Takayama, of Tepper Takayama Fine Art, Boston, MA. Martha, a curator of fine art for over 50 years, took me under her wing. Later that year, Life On The Vineyard became my first exhibited photograph. Since then, my work has steadily gained recognition. With Martha's guidance, over 100 of my fine art photographs have been featured in numerous publications, and more than 70 exhibitions in galleries and museums in 7 countries.
Sonya Tanae Fort
Award-winning, internationally exhibited
and published fine art photographer
Exhibitions & Publication
Sonya Tanae Fort's photographs have been featured in several publications and in numerous art contests, shows, exhibitions and museums throughout the United States and around the world.
Affiliations
