Today we’d like to introduce you to Leoke Asefa.
Hi Leoke, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Art and expression have always been at the heart of who I am, but photography was never where I thought my story would begin.
In high school and into my early twenties, I was actually more of a poet and, believe it or not, a rapper. Looking back, I think I was pretty good too. Lol. Writing gave me a way to express myself, but over time I realized that it was not completely fulfilling me. I was still searching for the medium that felt like mine.
Then, in 2014, I lost my father.
That loss completely changed the way I saw the world. For a while, everything felt gloomy. Things that once made me happy did not feel the same. I appreciated life less, my interest in things I once loved began to fade, and much of my outlook became a mixture of anger and sadness.
But one of the hardest realizations came when we were preparing to lay my father to rest.
I realized that I only less than 50 photographs of him.
And when I say photographs, I use that word generously. Many of them were low quality phone pictures that I could not enlarge or print the way I wanted to for his funeral. I did not have videos of him. I did not have recordings of his voice. As the years passed, I eventually found myself struggling to even remember exactly what his voice sounded like.
That broke my heart.
There were so many memories in my head, but so little I could physically hold on to.
During that period, I prayed a lot. I was tired of feeling empty and lost. The world had started to look disgusting to me, and I was tired of only seeing the negative in everything around me. I did not want grief to change the way I saw life forever. I wanted to see beauty again. I wanted to appreciate people and moments while they were still here.
So I prayed and asked God to show me the world through His eyes.
And that is when He placed a camera in my hand.
Once I picked it up, I took it everywhere.
Family gatherings, birthdays, regular days that probably did not seem important at the time. I photographed my family constantly. I wanted pictures of everybody. I wanted moments documented. I wanted us to have something to look back on and something tangible that could survive beyond the moment itself.
Without realizing it, photography started changing the way I looked at life.
Instead of focusing only on everything that felt dark, I started looking for light. I started noticing expressions, relationships, colors, details, and moments that most people might walk past. The camera became an extension of the way I saw the world.
That is really where Soul Eyes Studios began, long before I ever treated it like a business.
I spent years practicing and learning before I began taking photography professionally. When I finally decided to turn it into something bigger, I made a promise to myself that I did not simply want to create pretty pictures. I wanted the work to mean something.
I wanted what I created to be fulfilling for me, but I also wanted the person standing in front of my camera to see something meaningful in themselves and
That philosophy became the foundation of Soul Eyes Studios.
I have always believed that every image is a reflection. A headshot, a family photograph, a fashion image, a room, or a seemingly ordinary moment can carry a story. My job is to look past what is immediately visible and find the soul of that moment.
Over the years, I built my clientele, developed my style, strengthened my craft, and gradually expanded what Soul Eyes Studios could be.
Today, I photograph everyone from CEOs and business owners to employees, creatives, families, models, and people simply wanting to document an important chapter of their lives. I now work with businesses on recurring content and branding, helping them create imagery that represents not only what they sell, but who they are.
My work has also expanded heavily into videography and creative direction. I produce interviews, commercials, music videos, behind the scenes content, branding campaigns, and other visual projects. Sometimes a client already has the vision and needs someone who can execute it. Other times they simply have an idea, and I get to help build the world around it. I also do a lot of editing work for other photographers and videographers.
But my personal creative projects are where I allow myself to go even deeper.
I love building concepts around culture, representation, storytelling, and ideas that make someone stop and think. Projects like my Chocolate Box Collection were never created simply because I wanted beautiful photographs. That project became a celebration of Black skin, Black love, different shades of melanin, and the beauty that exists within all of those differences.
That is the direction I want my personal work to continue moving toward. I want to create photographs and films that have intention behind them.
It is interesting because photography started for me because I was afraid of losing memories.
Now my career revolves around creating them.
What began with me carrying a camera around because I never wanted my family to experience that same feeling of having too little to hold on to has grown into Soul Eyes Studios, a business, a creative outlet, and in many ways, a purpose.
I still consider myself the silent observer in a lot of my work. I may not always be the person in front of the camera, but you are seeing the world through my eyes.
And whether I am photographing a CEO, creating a campaign for a business, directing an editorial concept, filming a music video, or taking a simple photograph of someone I love, my goal remains the same:
Create something worth remembering.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I would not necessarily say it has been a smooth road, but I do think the journey is part of what makes the outcome worth it.
One of the biggest challenges has been learning how to stand out in an industry that is extremely saturated. There are so many talented photographers in the Raleigh and Triangle area, including photographers who have been established for years and naturally appear first when people are searching for services. Trying to build a name for myself while competing with people who already had strong reputations, large portfolios, and established client bases was definitely difficult.
Another challenge has been building Soul Eyes Studios while also maintaining a full time career. For a long time, that meant my availability was mostly limited to evenings and weekends. Naturally, that affected the number of clients I could take on, especially when potential clients needed weekday availability. There were definitely moments where I felt like I was trying to build a full time business with part time hours.
Marketing was probably one of the most discouraging parts of that process. I tried almost everything. Facebook and Instagram ads, referral incentives for previous clients, paid marketing services, and different promotional strategies. Some things would work temporarily, but nothing felt consistent.
There were periods when I was getting the views, likes, comments, and engagement, but the income was not reflecting that attention. That can really make you question yourself as an artist and as a business owner. I started wondering whether my work was good enough or whether I was doing something wrong. I had to learn that visibility does not always equal bookings, and being talented at photography does not automatically mean you understand marketing, sales, branding, or how to run a sustainable business.
Another challenge came when I started moving beyond the corporate side of photography and becoming more involved in the creative community. I quickly realized that the creative space operates very differently. A lot of it is built around collaboration, networking, and creating together rather than every opportunity immediately being paid work.
At first, that adjustment was difficult because I had to learn how to recognize the value in opportunities that did not necessarily come with a paycheck attached.
Eventually, I started looking at collaboration differently.
Instead of viewing it as unpaid work, I began being more intentional about who I collaborated with and what I wanted those projects to accomplish. Working with models, designers, makeup artists, and other creatives gave me the freedom to experiment, build concepts I genuinely cared about, and develop a portfolio that better represented the direction I wanted Soul Eyes Studios to go.
Ironically, some of those collaborative projects eventually helped bring paying clients to me.
That experience taught me one of the biggest lessons of this journey: sometimes the opportunity in front of you is not the final destination. It is the bridge to the next one.
There are still challenges, and I am still building, but I have learned not to measure my progress only by how quickly something happens. Every difficult season has forced me to become better, whether that meant improving my photography, understanding business, becoming more intentional about marketing, learning how to network, or simply trusting my own creative voice.
The road has not always been easy, but I think that is exactly what has made the growth meaningful.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Soul Eyes Studios is a photography, videography, and creative direction company, but at the heart of everything I do is storytelling.
I have always had a hard time putting myself into just one category because my work has grown into so many different areas. I photograph professional headshots and branding campaigns, businesses, events, portraits, fashion, and editorial concepts. On the video side, I have worked on interviews, commercials, music videos, behind the scenes content, documentaries, and other branded content.
More recently, I have really stepped into the role of creative director as well.
Sometimes a client comes to me knowing exactly what they want. Other times, they come to me with nothing more than an idea, a feeling, a song, a product, or even just a few words. I love being able to take that starting point and help develop the entire visual concept around it. That can include the location, wardrobe, lighting, set design, props, color palette, composition, storytelling, and ultimately how we want the audience to feel when they see the finished work.
I think that is one of the things that separates me from other photographers. I am not only thinking about whether an image is technically good. I am thinking about what it means.
What is the story?
Why are we creating it?
What should someone feel when they look at it?
And what are they going to remember about it afterward?
Even with something as simple as a professional headshot, I think about the person behind the title. I have photographed people ranging from CEOs and business owners to interns and employees, and regardless of someone’s position, I want them to see an image that represents confidence, personality, and who they are.
For my commercial clients, I approach things in a similar way. I do not just want to create content so a business has something to post on social media. I want to understand the company, its audience, its personality, and what it is trying to communicate. That has allowed me to build ongoing relationships with businesses that trust me to consistently produce content for their brands.
But I think the work I am most personally proud of is my conceptual work.
Those projects give me the opportunity to combine photography with culture, fashion, set design, storytelling, and creative direction.
One project that means a lot to me is the Chocolate Box Collection. On the surface, it is a fashion and editorial project inspired by chocolate, but the meaning behind it goes much deeper. I wanted it to be an appreciation of Black skin, Black love, Black flavor, and the different shades of melanin. Chocolate is rich, elegant, desirable, and timeless, and I wanted to take those same words and visually associate them with Black skin.
Projects like that represent where I want my personal work to continue going. I want people to see something beautiful first, but then realize there is another layer underneath it.
That is probably what I am most proud of. I have reached a point where I am no longer creating simply because something will look cool in a photograph. I am asking myself what I am actually trying to say.
My style continues to evolve because I never want to stop learning or experimenting. I have worked in very structured corporate environments, but I have also surrounded myself with models, designers, artists, musicians, and other creatives. Those two worlds have shaped me in completely different ways. The corporate side taught me professionalism, consistency, communication, and how to understand the needs of a client. The creative side taught me how important collaboration, imagination, experimentation, and community are.
Being able to exist in both worlds has become one of my greatest strengths.
I can walk into a business and photograph an executive team in the morning, then spend the evening directing a completely conceptual editorial shoot or filming a music video. They are very different environments, but the intention behind my work remains the same.
I want to bring a vision to life.
I also think what sets Soul Eyes Studios apart is the reason I started photography in the first place. Because my relationship with photography began with memory and loss, I do not take photographs for granted. I know that something I create today may become much more valuable to someone years from now.
That affects the way I approach people and the moments I am trusted to capture.
The name Soul Eyes Studios really represents that philosophy. I want to look beyond what is immediately in front of me. I want to find the personality, emotion, culture, story, or soul within it and translate that into an image or film.
My goal has never been for someone to simply say, “That is a nice picture.”
I want them to feel something.
What are your plans for the future?
My biggest vision for the future is to eventually have a studio of my own. I want a space where I can create freely, build sets, collaborate with other creatives, work with clients, and bring larger concepts to life without limitations.
I also want to continue expanding the creative side of Soul Eyes Studios. The Chocolate Box Collection is something I plan to revisit and grow at least twice a year, with new concepts, themes, and stories each time. I also have several other large themed projects that I want to produce throughout the year.
More than anything, I want to keep creating and capturing moments as much as possible. Whether it is for a business, an artist, a family, or one of my own creative projects, I want to continue making work that people can look back on and feel something from.
The goal is growth, but not just growth for the sake of being bigger. I want Soul Eyes Studios to become a space where ideas can turn into experiences, stories can turn into visuals, and moments can become something people can hold on to forever.
Pricing:
- $400 an Hour for Photography (10-15 Edited Images)
- $1000 Music Videos (5 Hour Day)
- $100 – $5000 a Month – Retainer Clientele, depending on quantity of work produced per a month
- $300 – Reels + Videos up tp (2 min)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://souleyesstudios.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/souleyesstudios/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/souleyesstudios/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leokeasefa/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@souleyesstudios
