Rangefinder Magazine
July 2005

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The Artful Heart: Sunshine Sommers by Charmaine Beleele
Using the Power of Portraiture to “Extend People’s Infinity”

In her early years Kathryn Sunshine Sommers of Middletown, Ohio, sang rock and roll and dreamed of stage shows and recording sessions. However, throat problems and surgery cost her that career.

Music’s loss became photography’s gain. She turned her creative energy to the camera, and although she still loves rock and roll, she has never looked back. She recalls that she’s always loved photography, even before she adopted it as a profession. She photographed her first wedding when she was 18. She worked for other small studios until a certain giant chain of studios hired her.

Today, this award-winning Master of Photography grins when she talks about her early career. When she wanted to use creative lighting, they told her that she wasn’t really cut out for the art. “When that studio fired me, I was so disgruntled I went to photography school and the Ohio Institute of Photography. I obtained a degree in photographic technology with a major in portraiture. I didn’t want to be a starving artist, so I went back to school and obtained a second degree, in business administration.”

Sunny has a philosophy, an optimism, that is as bright as her name. Like many artists, her approach to photography is infused with a creative passion for beauty. What makes her unique as an artist is her compassion for the human spirit. Sunshine, or Sunny, as she is better known, has often stated, “We extend people’s infinity.” To explain this, she tells the story of one of her high school senior clients, Justin Lewis. It is a story that could happen in your studio or mine, and it is a story of the power of a portrait. This story goes further to demonstrate Sunny’s artful heart than dozens of esoteric philosophical comments: As Justin and his mother, Claudia Mann, were leaving after meeting with Sunny in the studio, she nonchalantly complimented the young man’s weathered brown jacket, his favorite. “Be sure you wear that for your session,” she said. His mother, Claudia, immediately countered, “Okay, but I don’t think I’ll like photos of him in that old jacket.” Sunshine just laughed and said, “Okay, then the ones in the jacket will be free!”

They did not realize that within a few weeks, the images in the brown jacket would be favorites of both mother and son or that Justin’s “James Dean” style image would be tucked into hundreds of car visors and teen wallets. Neither did they know that Sunshine’s images would help Justin’s mother share the story of his untimely death with hundreds of teens in driving programs and high schools.

Claudia says, “Eye witnesses reported that my son, Justin, was street racing at the time he lost control and the vehicle became airborne. Because he had made the choice to wear no seat belt, Justin was ejected from the car and died of head injuries.” Claudia’s husband, Todd, a local police officer, called Sunshine two days after Justin’s death and ordered 400 wallet-sized portraits.

On the night before the funeral, at the “visitation,” Sunny brought the 400 wallets and two donated 16x20s for the solemn line up. During the ceremony, visitors watched Justin’s senior portraits flash on video screens overhead: brooding eyes, strong jaw, outlaw jacket.

Sunshine explains, “Incidents like this should make all professional photographers realize that social responsibility is part of our destiny. It is my belief that if God gives you or me a gift, it becomes our responsibility to use it to benefit others. Anything less is a travesty and a sin. We extend people’s infinity. We chronicle their immortality.” She adds, “I feel that we are also accountable to share our talents pro bono.” This comment seems to echo the rock group Survivor in their song, “Eye of the Tiger”—“So many times it happens too fast. You trade your passion for glory. Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past.”

Sunshine says, “As I left the visitation, I could not help but notice that his little sister was wearing her brother’s old favorite, the brown jacket from his portrait.” Today, Claudia uses Sunshine’s images to give teenagers “a presentation on the life of Justin Lewis and the impact of his death on November 7, 2003.” Hundreds of the teen audience members take home the “James Dean” wallets from Claudia’s program. The ultimate message is, in Claudia’s words, “to inspire and motivate teenagers in making better choices in their young lives and behind the wheels of their cars.”

Sunny says, “With Justin’s picture on their visors, it makes them think twice before they hit the gas.” These photos have become a force of major social change in Middletown, Ohio, which used to be a hotbed of teen street racing. One of the students, Chris Lyons wrote a poem entitled, “This Picture I Now Have.” He wrote, “As I look into this young man’s eyes/It only makes me realize,/How fragile is the life we’re given/And how easily it can be driven.”

Sunny’s residential studio is in the lower level of her home on a half of an acre in the city of Middletown, Ohio, nicely located between the metropolitan areas of Dayton and Cincinnati. Her first camera was a Pentax K1000, which she still extols as indestructible.

She advises, “That is the true way to study photography. Learn your basic camera controls on a manual camera; learn your f- stops, shutter speeds and how to handle depth of field. Therein lies the true essence of your art: Technical control without thinking about it. Confidence in your equipment frees you up to think more creatively.” She fears that often “new shooters will set their camera on program and never gain the knowledge they need to have true creative control over the tools of their trade.”

It was Tina Turner who said, “Sometimes you’ve got to let everything go—purge yourself. If you are unhappy with anything… whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you’ll find that when you’re free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.” Likewise, Sunny believes that overcoming the adversities and challenges in her life has sharpened her talents and brought her success as a person, a single mother and a photographer. Sunny has had to “let go” of problems that would have defeated many.

“I was married at 18, divorced by 20, and on public assistance, with no child support for seven years while I completed my education.” She also survived eye cancer to pursue her dream. In her matter-of-fact style, she says, “Eye cancer was God’s way of opening my eyes to see things just a little bit differently.” She is also fond of the quote, “That which does not kill you makes you stronger.” Like Carly Simon, Sunny “just hasn’t got time for the pain.” Being a cancer survivor has definitely given her a “live and let live” outlook on life. And her joy in photography has therapeutically helped her overcome her fears and concentrate on her art.

Although her studio work is totally digital, Sunny still combines medium-format images with the digital ones, for her weddings. As she pats her trusty Mamiya, she says, “I like the stops of latitude film affords me. As the wedding day progresses and the light changes, the Mamiya gives me beautiful image quality.” As much as she trusts her Mamiya, she is equally fond of her new Canon EOS 20D.

Laughingly, she says, “The 20D is so good in low light situations that I think the folks at Canon figured out a way to make that camera see in the dark!” For postproduction, she depends on the Ilford Studio System. She praises this arrangement and values her Epson 7600 for giving her control of her printing, a control that she learned to love years ago when she worked as a lab manager.

This mother of three maintains that her children are the truest joys and challenges and the gifts of her life. Her children, Sara (21), Maria (12) and Adam (9) are and have always been the focus of her life beyond the camera room. As any mother knows, each child is special in his or her own right, but Sara and Maria as well as Sunshine consider Adam a special treasure. When he was 12 months old, he was diagnosed with Infantile Spasms, a severe form of epilepsy. By 14 months of age, Adam was suffering as many as 30 seizures a day. Such a serious case of the disease and its complications often condemns a child to death within six months.

So, what effect has this experience had on her photography? “My experiences with Adam have given me a whole new perspective, a special insight into the spirit of a child. Her insight into children’s souls is reflected in the eyes of her classic studio images of children in Rembrandt light.” She says, “Children and people with great character are my favorite subjects. Renaissance art is my favorite, and I love the artistic rewards of costumed portraiture.” She adds, “As a student of Don Blair, I also revel in environmental and storytelling photography. Don, who in my opinion will always be the crown prince of American portraiture, took a personal interest in my work and career in 1998. We developed a father-daughter-like relationship that was extremely important and meaningful to me. His passing is the greatest loss to all that knew and loved this inspiring teacher.”

Sunshine’s deepest artistic education transpired after her graduation, due to workshops, seminars and competitions hosted by professional photographic organizations. She joined PPA 10 years after she graduated and within two years became one of the first two persons in the world to be granted the PPA’s Master of Photography degree in less than three years. (There had previously been a three-year tenure rule.)

Ohio brought her friends and mentors from local and state guilds: David Lesko, Mark Garber, Jon Johnson, Bob Hughes and Bob Kunesh. Second to completely controlling their equipment, Sunny feels the most important thing a new or veteran photographer can do to improve his or her art is to study with other professionals. Stuart and Susan Powers, John Allen from ASP, Jim Churchill, Jim Chagares and Helen Yancy are the teachers who have taught her to believe that the best images combine outstanding posing, lighting and expression.

Sunny stresses, “I believe that expression is a prime ingredient in the mood of an image.” She says, “I admire the extraordinary artistic vision of Darton Drake, Tim Kelly, Bruce Hudson, Tony Corbell and the Simones. Greg Stengal, Joyce Wilson, Pat Rice and Michael Ayers have also encouraged me in my work.”

Sunshine believes these mentors and countless others help photographers recognize the value of their work, their right and their gift of “extending infinity.” Again I refer to Chris Lyons’ poem, “This Picture I Now Have,” as he looked at Sunshine’s wallet-sized portrait of Justin. A photographer’s work can help people remember: “How good and bad can co-exist/How much a single soul is missed/How I feel the kindred spirit between/Myself and a man I’ve never seen.”

That’s “extending infinity.” And if you ever feel discouraged with the day-to-day challenges of running your studio, just imagine a teen walking on the streets of Middletown, Ohio. The front of his shirt sports the senior portrait created by Sunshine Sommers, and as he turns away, you see that the words on the back of his shirt read, “Fast and Furious Is Fatal.” Can you feel the infinity at work?

Visit with Sunny about photography or rock and roll, motorcycles or powerful portraits, or the blessings of an artful heart at sunnyone@erinet.com, and take a look at the portraits that shine at www.sunshinesphotos.com/.

CharMaine R. Beleele is a photographic artist (www.angelkissedphotography.com), speech communications professor (University of Arkansas), and writer (Rangefinder, “WPPI Photography Monthly” and Arkansas Catholic Newspaper).