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Simone Staff

@simonestaff

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Photographer | Creative Director
Campaigns & Editorials
Based in California / available globally
Founder of @seastermedia

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My first editorial published — and somehow, it became a COVER!

Still trying to find the words for that.

Elemental was built from pieces of myself I’ve carried for years. Sailing. Fashion. Femininity. Movement. The calm and chaos of being out at sea.

In sailing, bright colors can mean survival — something to be seen in if you fall overboard. In fashion, that same brightness can be read as dramatic, loud, too much. I wanted to explore the space between those worlds…to take the grit of the ocean and frame it with softness, elegance, and refinement.

There’s something powerful to me about a woman who can exist in both. Grounded and untouchable. Delicate and weathered by the wind.

This story felt like freedom.

And making it with people I admire made it even more special.

Forever grateful to everyone who helped bring this vision to life. first cover down ✔️

Photographer: 🙋‍♀️
CD: @rubymalamed
Talent: @alliemaebb
HMU: @dianecaranica
Styling: @anamariamabu
Assistant Styling: @avavo0m
@marinersailingcharters by @simonestaff

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5 months ago

There are places you visit and places that stay with you, and Norway has a way of doing the latter. I haven’t quite been able to shake it since leaving…and truthfully, I don’t think I want to.

We drove through mountains that rose straight out of the sea, past ancient glaciers and water so clear and cold it hardly seemed real. We wandered above the Arctic Circle, found surf in wild country, and met people who seemed perfectly content living quietly at the edge of the world. I found myself wondering what it would be like to live that way, tucked between the mountains and the sea, with nowhere in particular to be. Maybe that’s the new dream? There wasn’t a stretch of road that didn’t make us want to pull over, get out, and stand there for a while. We tried to take it all in before moving on to the next beautiful thing.

There’s something about a place so wild and vast that makes you feel incredibly small. The kind of beauty that doesn’t ask for your attention but takes it anyway. Nothing was trying to impress you, and yet everything did.

I’ve thought about going back more times than I can count since leaving. I feel incredibly lucky that this little life of mine, and the work I get to do, takes me to corners of the world I once only dreamed of seeing. And even luckier that I get to share some of them with people I love dearly.

Some places leave you with photographs. Others leave a little piece of themselves in you. Norway gave me both. by @simonestaff

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2 days ago

YETI x Matador Network x Florida Keys Tourism Board

Eight days in the Florida Keys with YETI and Matador Network, telling the story of YETI ambassador Captain Rush Maltz and the place he calls home. It was my first time in the Keys, and getting to experience it this way - on the water, underwater, chasing boats, fish, people and stories around with a camera - was about as good an introduction as I could have asked for.

I came on as the photographer and vertical video gal, but one of my favorite parts of the whole project was getting to work alongside such an insane crew of creatives. Watching everyone tell the same story through their own lens, and seeing how all of those pieces eventually came together, was incredibly inspiring.

Eight very full days, a lot of time on the water, some really wonderful people, and definitely one of those jobs that became a core memory somewhere along the way.

Production: @matadornetwork
Client: @yeti
Insane creatives: @kristoferevered @_omadavid @mystic_looch @spoart @h.a.g.sound @mike_dewey @marcosmzzl @itsethanong by @simonestaff

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11 days ago

A recent editorial with bachelor Doug Mason for L’Amour Spain

👕: @ryannlanel
🎥: @bannarchy
Assist: @alexaclayfieldphoto by @simonestaff

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17 days ago

In the pool recently with @alexaclayfieldphoto in @speedousa by @simonestaff

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24 days ago

L’AMOUR SPAIN AUGUST 2026 COVER — Doug Mason: The Art of Becoming

Shot in Los Angeles on a perfect spring day with an insanely talented crew.

Creative Direction + Stills: 🙋‍♀️
Videographer: @bannarchy
Talent: @_dougmason
Styling: @ryannlanel
Photography Assistant: @alexaclayfieldphoto
Music: @fotaki5 by @simonestaff

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a month ago

This is Dan. Some call him dirty Dan. He’s pretty bad-ass: on his bike rides he typically averages over 200 mile days. He has accomplished a whole heck of a lot, and I was lucky enough to document a sliver of his day to day this year. by @simonestaff

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a month ago

Years ago I started taking Elan and Chandler’s classes, separately, because i loved the way they taught. strength, endurance, mobility — not as separate practices, but things that build on each other and eventually find their way into everything else you do.
over time, i got to know them beyond the classes, and somewhere in there coaches became friends.

Then one day before one of her yoga classes, Chandler told me that she and Elan were starting something together, @elsewheremvmt. Knowing them both, it just made sense. When they asked me to help figure out what that world could look like, I already felt close to what they were building.

We talked a lot about movement and how we wanted it to feel. Not perfect form frozen at the right moment, but the experience of actually being in it — the speed, the strain, the breath, the quiet between efforts, the moment your body starts to give and you keep going anyway.

The direction became something we found together. They gave me room to follow ideas, make things blurry, strange, still, sweaty, imperfect. and mostly, they trusted me.

I think that trust is somewhere in these pictures.

Creative direction and 📸 by 🙋‍♀️ by @simonestaff

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2 months ago

@miichellemason in Laguna by @simonestaff

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2 months ago

Personal branding work with @madisynsloane @lululemon by @simonestaff

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2 months ago

Every so often I revisit a body of work and remember the person I was when I made it.

This story became my first magazine cover with Moevir, but somehow I always find myself coming back to the frames that never made the final edit.

Maybe because they remind me of why I started making photographs in the first place. There’s something about old boats, soft evening light, and making pictures with no thought beyond chasing the feeling. Producing the shoot, shaping the creative, and photographing it all reminded me that curiosity has always been my favorite compass.

It’s funny how the images that linger aren’t always the ones everyone sees. They’re often the quiet moments in between—the ones that still feel alive years later.

The work changes. The goals change. But the feeling of discovering an image you didn’t know existed never gets old…maybe that’s why I still come back to these.

I think those are the photographs worth holding onto. by @simonestaff

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2 months ago

A little fun moment showing some BTS with my shoot with @logankemp 🤍 Logan was so easy to work with, and the collaboration of the project was so apparent! Continuing to push the direction in sport and fashion I want to head towards, and lucky to work with such incredible people on every job I do! by @simonestaff

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3 months ago