Inside The Chart Of Sam Dameshek
Sam Dameshek is obsessed with beauty.
However, when I first met him, my first guess wouldn’t have been Taurus.
It’s his photographs that give him away—sensory-rich, provocative, textured. Sam takes photos that evoke full-bodied sensations, as if the images themselves are aching for you to reach out and grab them. Thirst-quenching shots of cocktails at parties you weren’t allowed into. Impossible women doing impossible things. And then, in stark contrast, quaint and romantic scenery that spans from the California coast to faraway and remote corners of the South of France, and the characters met on the way.
Still, when I first met Sam, I would have guessed Gemini. He’s an innate storyteller whose talents extend far beyond the camera. Upon meeting, he’s quick to divulge long-winded and ludicrous accounts of his adventures in LA—stories that traverse almost every canyon and usually conclude with an unwarranted run-in with an authority figure or government official. That penchant for mischief bleeds into his photos—but his written work is just as engaging. Sam keeps a notebook on his person at all times, filled with musings on romantic interests, philosophical ideas, and the occasional drawing.
His Venus in Cancer, placed in the part of the chart that rules home, gives me the impression that his relationship with his mom was formative—and that maybe one day he’ll design furniture. It also alludes to his understanding of places and composition, as if he sees the world around him as a modular and vibrant set. Sam has always struck me as a strange combination of paranormally lucky and hard-working, someone who ends up in the right place at the right time—but has the ethic and follow-through to churn circumstance into something tangible and lasting.
His newest project, Soap—a title that, once again, invokes texture—is a sensual and subversive print magazine that blurs the lines between fashion, storytelling, and atmosphere. Known for his cinematic eye and romantic visuals, Sam Dameshek’s work sits at the intersection of spectacle and sincerity. With a Taurus Sun, Pisces Rising, and a loaded third house, he approaches image-making like a diarist, slipping between fantasy and reality, loudness and silence, with ease.
Perhaps in the footsteps of many women before me, I was compelled to find out more about his work, dating life—and his natal chart.
Stars Align: Your work moves between high-octane fantasy and quiet, old-fashioned intimacy. You’re known for these glamorous, sensual, striking images—but in your book, Recommencer, there’s this softer undercurrent. I see that in your Pisces rising. That quietness, that intimacy… it feels like something people aren’t supposed to see.
Sam Dameshek: I’m drawn to both ends of the spectrum. On one end: intimacy, hidden corners, personal moments no one else notices. And on the other: this wild, cinematic beauty—celebrity, extravagance, that Slim Aarons-esque fantasy. I live in both. I love a big city, but I also find joy just sitting with someone by the ocean, listening to something quiet. I get excited about photographing things people don’t usually see—whether that’s a surreal moment of luxury or a subtle, deeply personal interaction. Sometimes it’s not that they’re hidden. Sometimes they’re right in front of us—we just don’t know how to look.
Stars Align: Do you think these extremes play out in your love life, too?
Sam Dameshek: Absolutely. There’s pleasure in those intense, unforgettable movie-style moments—ripping around the corner, being dramatic and passionate—but there’s also something really powerful in the slow, careful, delicate moments. Like you’re holding glass. Sex and romance are both like a song or a dance—you need the loud and the soft. Same with dates. An amazing date could be hyper-romantic and serene, or it could be us bar-hopping, getting tattoos, head out the window, wild night energy. I think for a while I was trying to make my love life feel like a movie. And if you try long enough, it kind of becomes that. You start to live that way without even realizing.
Stars Align: Your environments feel like characters in your work. With your Venus in Cancer in the sector of the home, you seem to have a natural ability to make spaces look and feel good.
What role do spaces play in your process? Is there a part of the world that inspires you most?
Sam Dameshek: I’d say the European coast. But honestly, it’s less about geography and more about texture—places that feel free but not overly polished. Like, I love Saint-Tropez, but this year I’m going to Mallorca. I want something with a little more grit. A bit of rawness. And it’s not always about how a space looks. It’s how someone can interact with it. There are locations people want to shoot at because they’re technically beautiful, but I look at them and think, “No one’s going to sink into this. It’s not alive.” I want to shoot people being—not posing. So I try to set a tone beforehand, so the moment can just unfold.
Stars Align: And you recently visited other artists' spaces for Soap. How did that shift your perspective?
Sam Dameshek: That was massive. I’m a creature of habit, and I’ve built a little world around myself where people usually come to me. But for Soap, we sat down with artists like Alessandro Fran, Jacob Rochester, Magnus Walker—people who invited us into their worlds. And their spaces were these full-on manifestations of who they are. It was overwhelming in the best way. I realized how much space can say about a person. It made me reflect on my own, and it really inspired me to push it further.
Stars Align: Favorite item in your home?
Sam Dameshek: My Bellini sofa. A big mirror. And some vintage French posters that were passed down from my mom.
Stars Align: What’s your favorite scent?
Sam Dameshek: I love the mix of lingering cigarette smoke and cologne on a t-shirt…. I wear Invictus by Paco Rabanne. I also love the way skin smells after being in the sun and salt water. It reminds me of childhood. And sometimes I’ll be in an elevator with a girl, and the smell she’s wearing will just launch me somewhere—some past memory I can’t place. I never know what it is exactly. It just hits.
Stars Align: I’m gonna go ahead and attribute this to the fact that you have a stellium (aka A TON) of planets in Taurus. But these planets are all shining in the 3rd house of your chart, the sector of the sky that rules over short journeys, communication, perception and language. Can you tell me the last thing you wrote in your notebook?
Sam Dameshek: Yeah, it was actually a draft for the editor’s statement in the new issue of Soap. It says:
“Wrote this one in pencil and then typed it. Really flipping things on their head here, but didn’t have my lucky red pen. Anyways, we’re just warming up. I hope you are, too. Issue one has been out for some months now, making this fever dream feel real. Issue one felt perfect. The second one was scarier. What if we can’t do it twice? Well, I feel like we did—but that’s for you to decide. What I know for certain is that myself and the team are learning, growing, meeting familiar and unfamiliar faces, and experiencing the beauty of new spaces. I’m banking on you finding interesting what I find interesting—but I still feel that’s the only way.”
Stars Align: You've always struck me as a pioneer—someone who works best independently. You have Jupiter in the 1st house in Aries- which tells me you attract the most luck when you follow your own instincts. How has the transition been working with a team on Soap?
Sam Dameshek: Sometimes I'll find myself wanting to give a lot of notes or instructions, and then I realize—sometimes it’s better to just see what people do and work off that. You have to know yourself, your strengths and weaknesses. I've learned that if the team is split on something, you really need confidence in your decision. But sometimes, someone else sees something you don't, and it's been good for me to step back and say, “I trust you, let’s do it your way.” That helps you grow. It helps you make something bigger than yourself.
Stars Align: Best date you've ever been on—or your ideal one?
Sam Dameshek: My ideal date is a multi-part experience. I don’t like flat, one-stop dates. It’s never just dinner. The more layers and spontaneity, the better. I love eating with someone. I like going to dinner in the West Village, then walking, then maybe going into a bar, meeting a group of strangers, and following them on some kind of weird journey. That’s the most exciting.Best date? I told a girl I was taking her to breakfast and then took her skydiving. That was funny.Recently, my friend—who works at Soap—and I were both single and bored. I said, “Want to go on a friend date tonight?” We got dressed up, went to dinner, jumped around to a bunch of places, played pool with strangers, ended up getting tattoos. No romantic content—just entertaining each other.
Stars Align: How do you feel about Los Angeles in its current state?
Sam Dameshek: Conflicted. LA nightlife used to be structured—clubs, marquee nights, promoters. I hated it at the time, but in hindsight, there was something fun about it. Maybe it’s just wanting what you can’t have.My favorite era was when there were a ton of house parties. That made LA feel special. Now, the crowds feel weaker. The social currency changed. Everyone’s famous in their own way now. The people who are actually famous aren’t going out here anymore. But on the flip side, I like that people are doing more bars and dining experiences now.
Stars Align: Does living in LA make you fall in love more—or just tease at it?
Sam Dameshek: 100% it just teases at it. LA makes me romanticize falling in love literally anywhere else. That said, I think it’s a cop-out when people say, “You can’t find love in LA.” I’ve dated here. I’ll date here. There are people who are above the vanity.But it’s tough. It’s a cesspool. It’s a high school. Competing energies, ideals, morals. There are a lot of other places I’d rather date. LA is probably lowest on the list, but I live here, so I’m trying to make the most of it. Maybe someone in New York will make me fall in love and I’ll keep it bicoastal.
Stars Align: Are you drawn to people who are pretending—or do you try to catch the moment when they stop?
Sam Dameshek: I'm trying to catch the moment when they stop. Either I photograph people who are never pretending—they’re just a real version of themselves—or people I know I can disarm and catch when they drop the act. Or sometimes, I make someone pretend. I give them a character, an aura, show them what they could be. That’s fun too.
Stars Align: Out of those three, what’s your favorite?
Sam Dameshek: Definitely disarming someone and capturing them once they stop pretending. People who are unapologetically themselves have a love for themselves that’s real. People who are pretending usually don’t know how beautiful they are without the performance. Showing someone that—who they are at their core? That’s the best.
Stars Align: Favorite places in LA?
Sam Dameshek: Beachwood Canyon. I don’t spend much time there other than driving through, but where Vine turns into Rossmore into Hancock Park is beautiful. Chateau. Tower Bar. Bar Secco. Living Room. And Hillhurst and Vermont in Los Feliz. Those are my favorites.
Stars Align: First time you remember being viscerally inspired by beauty?
Sam Dameshek: Girl in preschool named Brooke Bunn. Had the biggest crush on her. But also—my mom. I was like three or four, and I told her I was going to marry her. I didn’t understand how that worked. I thought she was the most beautiful and nicest person. So I think it’s safe to say I was inspired by my mom’s beauty. A lot of my love and admiration for women comes from the love and admiration I received from her.
Stars Align: Favorite physical sensation?
Sam Dameshek: Does success count as a physical sensation?
Stars Align: Well, what does that feel like?
Sam Dameshek: I’d say fullness. Completion. Not just success at face value, but putting a lot of time into something, releasing it, having it be received well—and looking back knowing it was all worth it. That’s a rewarding feeling. If you mean something more literal—like, purely physical—then yeah. Have you ever put an ice cube on your neck in a warm shower? Or felt cold water hit you on a hot day? That shit’s pretty good.
Stars Align: Most underrated body part?
Sam Dameshek: The ones lower on the totem pole aren’t necessarily underrated. Like, when has anyone ever been ecstatic about someone’s elbow? But then there are these subtle, intimate areas that aren’t always considered “intimate.” Like the lower back. The neck. Someone’s waist. Belly buttons are weird—but kind of cool.
Stars Align: Last insane risk you took? (again, Sam has Jupiter in Aries in his sector of self-I safely assume he’ll have a good answer)
Sam Dameshek: Honestly? Every time I put $10,000 into some dumb cryptocurrency. Or, when I was in Tahiti, for some reason I decided to take the kayak out at night and paddle around the ocean—which, in hindsight, was kind of stupid…I did it anyway.Then I heard a splash and thought, that’s weird, I didn’t think the waves broke here.I saw this faint outline in the water… then another splash, and a tail. I was like, oh—cool—a pretty decent-sized shark.
Stars Align: Oh my god.
Sam Dameshek: Yeah. Two of them, actually. Reef sharks—they’re relatively harmless, they live in shallow water. But both of them were clearly not stoked I was there. They were pretty big.Ironically, that wasn’t even the real risk, because I didn’t know what I was risking at the time. The risk was actually going back out the next night to look for them.
Stars Align: How do you deal with heartbreak?
Sam Dameshek: I usually start by dealing with it in all the wrong ways—filling the void with rebounds, drinking, overstimulating myself—doing whatever I can to distract from the fact that I’m withering. Eventually, that catches up to me. I’ll wake up and go, “Wow, I’m miserable. I have to face this head-on.”Truthfully, I’d never really been heartbroken until my last relationship. And I don’t think I actually started to deal with it until I made one specific decision. The commitment wasn’t about not talking to her—it was about eliminating the possibility of her talking to me. I blocked her. Not out of anger. I didn’t want to. It felt harsh, especially for someone who’d had such a big place in my life. But I realized the hard part wasn’t me reaching out—it was still hoping she might. You know those weeks when every time your phone pings, you’re like, “Is it them?” Blocking her made it so I couldn’t wonder anymore. That was a huge part of letting go.Obviously, I also threw myself into bettering myself—working out, reading, writing. Being social helped too. I started leaning into the parts of life I was missing during the relationship. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. And just to be clear, no harm, no shade to her. But that’s what helped me get over it.
Stars Align: What’s a common misconception about your work or your personality that you want to clear up?
Sam Dameshek: That’s a really important question right now, honestly. I think the biggest misconception about my work is that I’m just some shallow photographer who only shoots hot girls and that’s all I care about. Yes, beautiful women are a huge part of my work. I’m not denying that. But it’s wild how romanticizing beauty, being obsessed with aesthetics, is seen as a negative now—when it’s literally driven culture and fashion for decades.
Stars Align: Like classical statues.
Sam Dameshek: Exactly. If I were a sculptor making marble nudes, no one would bat an eye. But because it’s photography—and Instagram especially—people make assumptions. It’s crazy how someone can scroll through ten seconds of your feed and sum up ten years of your work. And I try not to let it get to me, but sometimes it does. Because I’ve shot everything—scenery, men, music, fashion campaigns, kidswear, lingerie, swim, suiting—everything. And I find beauty and excitement in all of it. Lately I’ve been leaning into what feels authentic.
I’m not sugarcoating it anymore. I’m not pretending I’m trying to make some high-concept political statement. I love photographing beautiful women. I’m done pretending that makes me less of an artist.
And I’ve realized—not everything has to have some deeper meaning. Sometimes I just like something. A photo. A tattoo. Whatever. It doesn’t have to be symbolic. It can just be beautiful or fun or aesthetically satisfying. A lot of my work is just that: daydreams, fantasies, mood. I like beauty and extravagance, but I also love what’s dirty, beat-up, and imperfect. That’s why this interview has felt so good—you saw that. I exist on both ends of the spectrum. One photo could be a girl in a half-a-million-dollar Porsche, dripping in Saint Laurent. The next is a grungy motel, some dirtbag guy smoking a cigarette.
Both are hot. Both are art.
Stars Align: Some of your work feels like a diary. Do you think your photos reveal more than you let on in real life? And is it easy for you to open up?
Sam Dameshek: It’s super easy for me to open up. If anything, it’s harder for me to shut off. That’s actually what gets me into trouble—I put everything on the table.My mindset is like, how can you fault me for being real and honest in a city where everyone’s lying to you? I say things that piss people off, or that might be a little upsetting, or even a bit vulgar sometimes. But I’d rather be honest than manipulative. There’s a certain safety in just saying it like it is. At least I’m not trying to trick anyone. These days, I try not to overthink how I’m being perceived. It can mess with your rhythm, with your confidence. Of course, I reflect, and I try to work on myself—who knows, you know?
Stars Align: Yeah. It’s lonely at the top.
Sam Dameshek: Who even knows where the top is? I’m on top of a building right now—it’s pretty high—but really? I’m just walking laps around a pool while we talk.
Stars Align: Is there anything unusual you collect?
Sam Dameshek: Yeah, I collect a lot of physical things. I always end up stealing napkins, receipts, bus-tickets, matchboxes—basically anything that might have a cool quality if I scanned it or could be written on.
Stars Align: Let’s talk about Soap, your latest project. It’s a magazine, but what’s the ethos behind it?
Sam Dameshek: I miss when advertising and fashion had sensuality baked in—when it wasn’t so separate or sanitized. There used to be space for people to pose nude, to own their sensuality and sexuality in a way that felt cool, not cringe. Playboy was cool. Lui Magazine was cool. Even American Vogue. And the way we talked about sex felt more honest then. Now, the conversation around sexuality either feels super performative or overly soft. So I wanted Soap to be: a return to something more direct, more playful, more real. Something collectible. A coffee table book that actually makes people want to buy print again, and that speaks to a range of different people for different reasons.
But the selfish reason? I wanted to make a magazine for me. I needed an outlet to express all the things I don’t get to express through photography alone. I love writing, casting, furniture, architecture, movies—pretty much anything art-adjacent. There’s very little I don’t have an opinion on. I see design in everything. I want to explore that.Soap is an excuse to follow that curiosity—to create something immersive that brings all these passions together. That’s the vision.
Stars Align: If you had one last meal, what would it be?
Sam Dameshek: Funny you ask—last night I made this really sultry, slow electric guitar playlist, kind of Led Zeppelin-ish, for... let’s say, a certain kind of activity you have with someone you like. I titled it My Last Meal. So I’ll let whoever wants to connect the dots... connect them.