Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Will Overby. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Will thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?
Yes, absolutely. I think my work has often been misunderstood because it does not fit neatly into existing categories. When people first encounter it, they sometimes assume it is simply standard editorial portraiture or images of models in minimal wardrobe. On the surface, I understand why. The work is clean, restrained, and fashion forward. However, that assumption misses the intention behind it.
In the fitness and wellness space especially, imagery is often expected to be performative. Action, intensity, sweat, and visible output tend to dominate. My work intentionally removes those elements. I am less interested in documenting what someone can do in a moment and more interested in who they are when performance is stripped away. That restraint has occasionally been mistaken for simplicity, or even absence, when in reality it is a very deliberate choice.
That misunderstanding ended up being a teacher. It showed me that I was not failing to communicate, but operating in a space that did not yet have clear language. Over time, that realization led me to define the work more clearly and to trust stillness as a strength rather than something that needed justification. The biggest insight for me was learning that clarity does not always come from adding more, but from committing fully to what you choose to leave out.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am an editorial portrait photographer based in Southern California, and my work lives at the intersection of fashion, portraiture, and identity. I came into photography through a commercial beauty and fashion background, where I learned discipline, precision, and the importance of intentional visual storytelling. That foundation shaped how I approach lighting, composition, and craft, but it also taught me that technique alone is not what gives an image its weight.
My work deepened significantly when I began photographing boudoir. That experience shifted my understanding of photography from purely aesthetic to deeply relational. Boudoir taught me how much emotional presence matters, how vulnerability shows up differently in every person, and how powerful it can be when someone feels seen rather than performed for. It trained me to photograph people with care, patience, and respect, and to understand beauty as something internal before it is visual.
At the same time, I was on my own personal fitness and wellness journey. Through that commitment, I began to recognize parallels between discipline in the body and discipline in creative practice. Fitness, for me, was never about spectacle or display, but about stewardship, consistency, and intention. That realization became the bridge between my fashion training, my boudoir work, and the way I wanted to photograph women in fitness and wellness. Fit Fashion emerged not as a concept, but as a lane that finally gave language to everything I had been practicing all along.
Today, I create editorial portrait work, particularly through Fit Fashion, an editorial portrait experience for women in fitness and wellness that intentionally steps away from action-based or performative imagery. Instead of documenting movement or output, the work focuses on discipline, presence, and identity. The goal is not to show what someone can do in a moment, but who they are when the noise is stripped away.
What sets my work apart is restraint. In an image-saturated world that often rewards excess, I am intentional about what I leave out. Lighting, wardrobe, and posing are all carefully considered so that the image feels grounded and timeless rather than trend-driven. This approach allows the subject to remain the focus, not the concept or the spectacle around them.
I work with clients who want more than a standard portrait or branding image. Many of the women I photograph are deeply committed to their craft, their bodies, and their values, and they want imagery that reflects that commitment with honesty and dignity. My role is to create space for them to be seen clearly and without performance.
What I am most proud of is building work that feels aligned and lasting. I care deeply about creating images that people can return to years later and still recognize themselves in. For anyone encountering my work for the first time, I want them to know that my approach is thoughtful, collaborative, and rooted in respect. This is not about trends or spectacle. It is about presence, intention, and creating portraits that feel as meaningful as they look.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
One of the biggest lessons I had to unlearn was the idea that my work needed to perform in order to be valuable. Early in my career, especially coming from a commercial beauty and fashion background, there was an unspoken pressure to make images that were immediately impressive. Strong reactions, bold concepts, visible intensity. That mindset quietly teaches you that if an image does not demand attention right away, it has failed.
That belief followed me into other areas of my work for a long time. Even when I transitioned into more people-centered photography, there was still a subtle pull toward proving something. Proving skill. Proving effort. Proving worth. It was not until I spent more time photographing boudoir and deepening my own fitness and wellness practice that I began to question that assumption.
Boudoir taught me that presence often speaks louder than spectacle. Fitness taught me that discipline is usually quiet, consistent, and unseen. Those experiences helped me unlearn the need to over-explain or over-produce my work. I began to trust that restraint was not a limitation, but a choice.
The backstory is simple but meaningful. The more I allowed my work to slow down, the more honest it became. I stopped trying to make images that asked for attention and started making images that held space. That shift changed not only how my work looked, but who it resonated with. Unlearning that lesson gave me clarity, confidence, and ultimately the language to define my work more truthfully.
Have you ever had to pivot?
For a long time, my career followed a linear path. I came up through commercial beauty and fashion, where expectations were clear and structure was defined. That work taught me discipline and precision, but over time I began to feel a growing tension between what the industry rewarded and what I felt called to create.
The pivot I am in now did not happen all at once. It emerged through accumulation. Photographing boudoir deepened my understanding of emotional presence, and my own fitness and wellness journey reshaped how I thought about discipline and stewardship. I started to notice that the images I was most proud of were not the ones that performed the loudest, but the ones that felt honest, grounded, and enduring.
I am currently in the process of this pivot, and I see that as a sign of growth rather than uncertainty. Pivots are often framed as corrections or failures, but in my experience, they can be a reflection of maturity. They happen when clarity catches up to experience. Fit Fashion represents that alignment for me. It is not a departure from my past work, but an integration of everything I have learned across fashion, portraiture, and personal discipline.
This season has taught me that alignment matters more than momentum. Choosing to pivot does not mean abandoning what came before. It means allowing your work to evolve honestly as you do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://willoverbyphotography.com/fit-fashion
- Instagram: @willverbyphotography
Image Credits
Photographed by Will Overby
Model/MUA: Michelle Rodriguez @monartmakeup.mich