Sophia Love Ilizarov, a filmmaker and photographer based in New York City and Los Angeles, occupies a creative space that defies boundaries and expectations. Her work transcends labels, intertwining themes of identity, sensuality, and liberation. Through the lens, Sophia Love reclaims herself, her body, and her narrative, unfolding a deeply intimate yet universally resonant exploration of the human experience.

Sophia Love’s journey began not with calculated intent but through an instinctive, primal act of self-expression. At 18, she turned the lens on herself, capturing her first erotic self-portraits with a Polaroid camera. These works weren’t a search for healing but a reclamation, a bold and unapologetic embrace of her sensuality, vulnerability, and power. Each photograph became a testament to her defiance against a fractured sense of self after being sexually assaulted at 13 years old, embodying her innate understanding that pain, when confronted, can transform into a radical act of creation.

While her artistry is rooted in self-portraiture, it has evolved into directing 16-mm films and shooting analog fashion campaigns, where her intimate and cinematic storytelling remains unmistakable. Working with mediums like 35-mm and Polaroid, her images feel timeless and unfiltered, a testament to her ability to blur the lines between the personal and the universal.

What sets Sophia Love apart is not merely the evocative nature of her work, but the way she embodies both creator and subject, muse and mirror. Her photography reflects a fearless duality: raw and refined, sensual and cerebral. Her ability to capture these tensions with an unerring eye has cemented her presence in spaces like Dacia Gallery, Eleventh Hour Art Gallery, and Monad Agency in New York City, where she has exhibited and spoken on the intersection of art and identity.

Her workshops with Polaroid extend this philosophy, inspiring others to reclaim their narratives through the act of creation. Armed with a degree in Psychology and Neuroscience, Sophia Love approaches her work as an excavation of the subconscious, translating the unspoken into visual poetry. Her art does not ask for understanding; it demands surrender.

All images above are self-portraits on film, with the exception of the underwater series, which was creative directed by Sophia Love.