Tabitha Soren
: Tabitha Soren (born August 19, 1967) is an American former TV journalist turned fine art photographer. Explore her journey from MTV News and political reporting to acclaimed photographic series like Fantasy Life and Surface Tension.
Introduction
Tabitha Soren is a figure of transformation—a prominent TV journalist in the 1990s, later reinventing herself as a fine art photographer whose work probes identity, visibility, and the unseen. Her career bridges mass media and intimate visual expression, and her shift from reporter to visual artist provides a compelling narrative of evolving voice, perspective, and medium.
While many know her from news coverage or her early presence on MTV, what defines her today is a body of photographic work that mixes psychological inquiry with formal experimentation. Her legacy lies in both her public journalism and her more private, sustained exploration of images.
Early Life & Background
Tabitha Soren was born August 19, 1967, in San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Because her family moved frequently (including living in multiple U.S. states as well as in Germany and the Philippines during her youth), she was exposed to shifting cultural contexts, which she later said shaped her sense of dislocation and perception.
She earned her undergraduate degree from New York University (NYU) in 1989, studying journalism and politics, before later being awarded a fellowship at Stanford University where she studied art and photography.
Media & Journalism Career
MTV & “Choose or Lose”
At age 19, while still a student, Soren appeared in the Beastie Boys’ music video (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!).
She later became a prominent face of MTV News. One of her notable roles was anchoring MTV’s Choose or Lose campaign, encouraging young adults to vote. That campaign earned a Peabody Award in May 1992.
In her reporting period, she interviewed major figures such as Hillary Clinton, Anita Hill, and Yasser Arafat.
Broadcast Journalism & Transition
After MTV, Soren worked in broadcast journalism with ABC News and NBC News.
Over time, she transitioned away from mainstream journalism and toward photography, applying the investigative rigor of news to her visual art.
She also had cameo appearances as herself in films such as The Cable Guy (1996) and Contact (1997).
Artistic Career & Photographic Work
Approach & Themes
Soren’s photography is deeply informed by her journalistic roots—she researches, gathers data, and frames visual stories with both factual grounding and poetic ambiguity.
Her work often explores impermanence, internal states, and the tension between surface and underside—i.e., what we see and what lies beneath.
She experiments with materiality (inks, resins, layering) and visual distortion to unsettle perception and invite deeper reflection.
Major Projects & Exhibitions
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Running (2012)
A multi-year project spanning 15 U.S. states and beyond, Running captures isolated figures in motion, often in desolate or liminal urban landscapes. -
Fantasy Life (2015 onward)
In Fantasy Life, Soren followed 21 baseball players selected in the Oakland A’s 2002 draft, over the course of their careers, to explore hope, expectation, decline, and identity.
The work was exhibited in the U.S. and published as a book by Aperture. -
Surface Tension
This series uses 8×10 film images of smudged screens (e.g. iPad or smartphone surfaces) to reveal the traces our bodies leave on technology—a metaphor for human–machine interaction. -
Panic Beach
She also created a photographic series capturing dramatic coastline waves, exploring nature’s power and unpredictability.
Her works are held in public collections including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, LANL, Oakland Museum of California, Harvard Art Museums, Pier 24 Photography, and more.
Personality & Philosophy
Soren’s voice is one of quiet urgency. She often describes herself as someone attuned to psychological flux, tension, and the hidden dynamics of perception.
She does not shy from the emotional weight of her subject matter—loss, longing, dislocation—but tempers it with formal restraint and deliberate structure in her image-making.
Her crossing over from journalism to art reflects a belief that certain truths are better revealed in silence, metaphor, and visual ambiguity than in headline reportage.
Personal Life & Challenges
Soren married author Michael Lewis in 1997.
They had three children: Quinn, Walker, and Dixie. Tragically, their daughter Dixie died in a head-on collision with a semi-truck in California on May 25, 2021.
Soren currently resides and works in Berkeley, California.
Notable Quotes & Statements
While Soren isn’t as widely quoted as some public figures, here are a few representative ideas from interviews and her artist statements:
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“I probe the surface of the photograph to get at what is going on underneath.”
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Her work “brings together research, data, and personal memory … to illuminate what lies just beyond perception.”
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On Surface Tension: using smudged screen images to visualize how we leave traces on technology—imbuing the mundane with psychological meaning.
Lessons from Tabitha Soren
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Reinvention is possible at any stage.
Soren’s shift from journalism to photography shows that one’s career can evolve meaningfully without losing coherence of voice. -
Investigative rigor enriches art.
Her journalistic methods—interviews, data, fieldwork—anchor her visual work in observation, making it more grounded. -
Surface matters, but so does depth.
Her interest in what is hidden, obscured, or “just off frame” invites the viewer to slow down and look again. -
Art can carry personal and collective weight.
Through projects like Fantasy Life, she maps wider social narratives (e.g., sports, aspiration) through individual lives. -
Loss and fragility live alongside beauty.
Her personal tragedy with her daughter’s death casts a somber shadow, adding emotional resonance to her explorations of impermanence.
Conclusion
Tabitha Soren is a rare example of someone who has succeeded both in mass media and in fine art. As a journalist, she shaped youth political discourse; as an artist, she reframed how we see the everyday, the human, and the mediated surface of life. Her photographic work continues to evolve, compelling us to examine what lies beneath what we notice—and to question how much we see, and how much remains unseen.