He’s bold, he’s blonde, and he brandishes a Sony A7 III.

In addition to being a musician, officer of Swing Club, and physics major, sophomore Erik Teder is a freelance photographer. Teder has served as a photographer for weddings, portraits, and The Collegian.

“To me, photography is always about capturing joy,” Teder said. “From the very beginning, it was always about finding joy in people I saw walking – or really anything I could find. That philosophy carried me through until now.”

Teder said he started taking pictures seriously as a high schooler during COVID-19 lockdowns. 

“One of the reasons I started taking pictures over COVID-19 specifically is that everything was so sad,” he said.

According to Teder, he initially began by photographing landscapes but quickly moved into “people-oriented photography.” 

“I really know the type of photography I want to do,” Teder said. “To me, people are the single most interesting entity on planet Earth. The things I can count on to always be different and always be changing and always be beautiful are people.”

Teder said he uses his photography to bring to light aspects of his subjects’ identities as well. 

“I want people to see the soul beyond the medium,” Teder said. “If I take a picture of someone, I want them to go back afterwards and look at it and think, ‘Wow, there’s an aspect of me that comes through that picture that’s almost beyond the ink or beyond the pixels.’” 

According to Teder, his photographic magnum opus was his high school capstone project. 

“One of the projects I’m most proud of was my senior capstone for high school, on the subject of leisure, the Greek sense of ‘scholē,’ and learning,” Teder said. “That’s the project I had the most artistic and creative vision for.” 

Teder combined 12 interviews on the subject of “scholē” with black and white photographs of the individuals he interviewed. 

Platon, a British photographer whose work is marked by a simple, authentic style, had a particular influence on Teder’s photography, Teder said. 

“I was proud of that because it combined my love of photography with exploring a genre I hadn’t worked a lot in, and a medium that I hadn’t worked a lot in,” Teder said.

Teder also uses his skills to capture important moments in the lives of his friends. Last summer, he shot a wedding for junior Michayla Kinney. 

According to Kinney, Teder captured the best moments of the wedding. 

“He did great,” Kinney said. “He was very confident and competent and organized and he kept things moving really well. We have awesome, awesome wedding photos.”

Sophomore Aidan Christian, a friend of Teder, points out how Teder invests energy and imagination into composing portraits.

“I think that Erik does a great job of personalizing the subjects of his photos, really getting to know them and choosing the mood and angle and lighting for his photos based on who the person is,” Christian said.  

Christian enjoys Teder’s photography because it skillfully and faithfully portrays those around him. 

“Erik really wants to make sure that each person is represented perfectly by their portrait and I think that is what’s great about his work,” Christian said.

Teder’s photography can be found on Instagram or on his webpage, getphotosbyerik.com. 

“What I want to do is give people the opportunity to be themselves in front of a camera, whether they know I’m there or not,” Teder said. “It’s always about honesty and truth in service to beauty.”