What started as taking photos after school on an iPad turned into countless sponsorships and photoshoots for senior IMC major Charis Cheung.
With over 58,000 followers on Instagram, Cheung continues to climb the ladder each year in the world of photography. As she has developed her own style of photography, she has booked more clients and done work with large companies like Fujifilm and Canon.
“She’s an extremely hard worker and a prime example of what all people should be doing in college,” Alex Paloglou, senior IMC major and Cheung’s boyfriend of three years, said. “It should be, you know, focusing on school or going and pursuing higher education, but also working on your passion on the side to see where it can lead.”
Starting Out
When Cheung was in middle school, she said she found photography to be a fun way for her to express herself while also spending time with friends. She described this era as “the Tumblr phase,” when apps and sites such as Instagram and Tumblr were gaining popularity.
“I always thought I was somewhat good at it just visually and composition-wise,” Cheung said. “I’m super bad at camera terminology — I feel like I never fully studied it; I kind of just figured it out on my own.”
After spending years taking photos of her friends, Cheung said she realized she had a deep love for photography and bought her first camera in eighth grade. Eventually, she began to use it as a way to meet new people, asking classmates she had never spoken to to model for her.
Tonalli Garcia-Rodriguez, one of Cheung’s best friends from her hometown, said she remembers the endless photoshoots she and Cheung would do in middle school.
“It was an opportunity to hangout with one another and be creative,” Garcia-Rodriguez said. “I appreciate it so much now, because it’s so sweet to look back on.”
As she took more photos, Cheung started posting her work on her Instagram page, where others soon discovered her photos and eventually began hiring her as a photographer. She remembers the COVID-19 pandemic as the time when her account really skyrocketed and her ideal clients began hiring her.
“My ideal client is someone who wants to hire me for my specific creativity and my work and giving me the full creative direction,” Cheung said. “I feel like my photography is more creative-heavy versus, like, just taking a pretty photo. So when people started hiring me because they wanted me to create the concept or because they really valued my style, that’s when I feel like I found my work.”
Sponsorships
As Cheung’s portfolio grew concurrently with her Instagram followers, brands began reaching out to her for sponsorships. Out of all the sponsorships she has done thus far, she said her trip to Japan with Fujifilm in February 2024 particularly stands out.
“They [Fujifilm] sent me to Japan for a week with only five other content creators and everything was paid for,” Cheung said. “I really felt like, you know when you see influencers on brand deals and stuff, it felt like that. I was like, ‘This is kind of crazy.'”
The goal of the trip was to let Cheung and the other photographers use the new Fujifilm X100vi camera before it was released, Cheung said. Each day, the group would explore Tokyo and take photos, and just before the end of the trip, the photographers met the people behind designing the camera to learn about the process.
Aside from her trip with Fujifilm, Cheung has partnered with several other companies through sponsorships such as Canon, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop and DJI.
Cheung said her next sponsorships work will be with Ray-Ban for their new Meta Glasses and Casetify, who is coming out with a travel campaign for their new luggage line.
“It’s also very unique, because I’m a photographer, and so the brands that reach out to me are a little bit more niche to photographers,” Cheung said. “I think, like in the photographer community, there’s not that many content creators also, so that’s why I think it’s working out for me more than if I were to be a lifestyle influencer.”
Other Work
However, Cheung’s work extends beyond sponsorships. In January 2023, Cheung took a photo for a cosmetic company which was featured on a billboard in Los Angeles and in March 2023, Business Insider wrote an article about her.
In January, Cheung worked with actress and music artist Audrey Huynh to shoot promotional photos for a new album Huynh was working on. Later on, Vogue Singapore wrote an article about the rising actress, and used Cheung’s photo as the featured image.
“I really admire her creative ability and her ability to stretch the boundaries of her creative work,” Paloglou said. “She never does the same photoshoot twice whether it’s for clients or models or whoever she’s shooting, she’s always making new ideas.”
Cheung said as she racked in more and more sponsorships, everything started to feel real. She was getting large paychecks from big companies, had an LLC and started paying taxes — all while still being a student.
Finding Balance
Growing up in LA, Cheung said she got used to the variety of locations she could use for her photoshoots. However, moving to Malibu for school, she said the beach and mountains, though beautiful, got old after only so many shoots, leading her to experience creative blocks.
“It is hard to stay in this mindset of creativity all the time when you’re a student,” Cheung said. “I guess the hardest part for me isn’t necessarily balancing time, but I feel being in college made me just have a lot of creative blocks.”
As with any college student, Cheung said her busy schedule has a huge affect on her growth as a photographer.
“It’s funny, because a lot of my friends, like in the summer, they’ll always say, ‘Oh my gosh you’re going off and you’re posting so much,'” Cheung said. “And I was like, ‘This is what I would be doing if I wasn’t in school, right?'”
Looking Forward
With graduation in the coming months, a big question, which Cheung said has been on her mind since she first got into college, has been approaching her — whether she would want to pursue photography full-time or not.
Cheung said she feels torn between entering the corporate world or continuing her photography journey, but her growth thus far serves as a push factor in being a full-time photographer and creative director.
“A part of me also feels like the fact that I’ve been able to accomplish this much while being a student, I can’t even imagine if I wasn’t a student how much more I could accomplish,” Cheung said.
Whichever realm Cheung decides to step into, she said she has always kept one thing in mind, even before she grew her portfolio as a photographer or owned her first camera: There is always room to grow.
“I would never even have thought I’d ever be on Vogue or getting sponsored by Ray-Bans,” Cheung said. “Like these are crazy things that, I would be like shocked when I was young.”
Garcia-Rodriguez said that although she never expected their middle school impromptu photoshoots to grow into what Cheung is doing today, she is not surprised at how far Cheung’s creativity and “go-getter” attitude has taken her.
“I just feel so lucky to have a friend, a fellow woman, who’s their own entrepreneur and so set on their goals and determined to do them no matter what,” Garcia-Rodriguez said.
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Contact Amanda Monahan via email: amanda.monahan@pepperdine.edu
