What major comes to mind when you think about a student photographer? Did you say chemical engineering? No? That’s weird, because Julia Sun ’26 is a photographer studying chemical engineering and doing both masterfully. Although she has always been an artist, Sun hasn’t always been a photographer. She recounted her first foray into the world of photography with a Sony a6000 bought for her by her father. “I just started clicking. … I didn’t even know what I was doing. I really, really loved it — just taking pictures, bringing [my camera] everywhere with me,” she shared. That inspiration led her to take photography classes in her senior year of high school, which helped her hone in on her technical skills.
Upon entering college, Sun looked for ways to put her newfound passion to use. Very quickly, the opportunity of taking headshots presented itself. (All Cornellians know that having a good LinkedIn headshot is a matter of life and death. It was a good call on Sun’s part.) But beyond availability, Sun felt a deep commitment to doing the job and doing it right. “They’re paying me money, so I have the responsibility to make them look good,” she said. Sun never takes the trust that her subjects put in her for granted and always strives to deliver a final product that makes everyone happy. If you’re like me and you’ve had a chopped headshot or three, you’ll really appreciate that conviction.
So, how did Sun go from Cornell campus-based photography to New York Fashion Week? “Serendipity at its finest.” It was a classic story of who you know, and Sun ended up meeting just the right person to get her there at an Adobe creator event in Chicago. Going to NYFW was an incomparable experience for Sun, who had the chance to build her portfolio and develop her craft at a well-known fashion event. Though Sun isn’t married to fashion photography, she sees the practice as an extension of cultural exploration, and her dream is to shoot for Vogue someday.
But beyond those big, shiny goals, Sun has a lot of ideas about what art and photography as an art form mean to her. To Sun, the most valuable part of photography — when compared to other, less immediate art forms — is that “other people can experience what [she] experience[s].” And it’s not just a carefully crafted process, Sun sees photography as a measure of inherent talent and intuition as well. “For photography specifically, when you press a button, it’s based on your intuition and that decisive moment,” she shared. Poignantly, Sun continued, “I would like to show the world what I’ve experienced.” Photography is her way of doing that — of converting a moment, a life, an experience into something both lasting and shareable. Each click of her camera shutter is a piece of her own worldview being committed onto an SD card, later to be printed or pulled up on a screen as evidence that Sun was there, that she observed and what she saw was worth making permanent.
At the close of our conversation, we circled back to the very first thing we talked about: Sun’s very disparate major as opposed to her passion. “I think there’s merit in doing a major outside of art,” Sun said. For her, art is about self-discovery in a way that her course of study isn’t. Like many Cornell students, Sun came into college looking to be practical with her choices. She saw the STEM path as more reliable, and she was content to keep art as a hobby. However, over time, she found that her passion for photography could not be ignored, and now she’s fully on that path. Even so, Sun doesn’t regret her choice to study chemical engineering. “I get to use different sides of my brain,” Sun commented. “Photography’s a good break from chemical engineering. Then, once you take a lot of photos, you want to be stimulated again with different problem sets.” I can’t say that I’ve personally ever wanted to do a problem set, but I find her commitment to both areas more than admirable.
As Sun is on her way out of Cornell, she’s excited for everything the world has to offer her, whether that’s in fashion photography, landscape photography, some other kind of art or chemical engineering. Her positivity and innovation will take her far, I’m sure.
You can check out Sun’s work at her website.
Sophia Romanov Imber ’28 contributed to reporting.
‘Student Artist Spotlight’ is a column that runs intermittently, featuring student artists of all kinds on campus. For interest in a feature, please contact Melissa Moon at mmoon@cornellsun.com.
Melissa Moon is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is the Arts & Culture Editor on the 144th Editorial Board and was an Assistant Arts & Culture Editor on the 143rd Editorial Board. She can be reached at mmoon@cornellsun.com.
