Coming from a family of artists and being interested in photography since when she was young, Sara has acquired familiarity and intimacy with this medium. Looking at her pictures, that is quite easy to see and understand..
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My photographs are meant to explore what is the present form of a past life, and to imbue the forgotten things with new life and beauty through photography. - S. W.
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“Rich” and “articulated” can be two of the most fitting adjectives describing Sara Wallach’s professional and artistic path. Photographer and editor, she obtained her bachelor’s degree in Photography at Bard College, in the U.S. Then she moved to Eastern Europe and London, where she studied Sociology at Goldsmiths, finally heading back to Massachusetts.
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Coming from a family of artists and being interested in photography since when she was young, Sara has acquired familiarity and intimacy with this medium. Looking at her pictures, that is quite easy to see and understand: centred on a main detail, they play around with contrasts – a part representing a whole (a synecdoche), light and shadow, new and old…
The astonishment, in the end, is raised by the unexpected and surprising meaning hidden behind every object, every human framed and then shown. Memories, emotions, curiosity are obviously part of the process.
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Author Silvia Colombo
L.A.: Sara how and when did you become interested in photography?
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Sara Wallach: I became interested in photography when I was a teenager, going through extreme insecurity and not feeling good enough at any other form of visual or creative art work. I come from a family of artists and musicians, and I did not feel like I could keep up with them. But none of them were photographers, and I grew to love it because it was my own.
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L.A.: What's the true role of the photographic medium in your work?
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Sara Wallach: Photography allows me to paint with reality, forming and collecting natural patterns, and organizing disparate shapes into a beautiful collection within the frame. Rather than using another medium, I find photography to be the most satisfying.
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L.A.: What do you hope people see, feel or understand when they look at your images?
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Sara Wallach: I hope that people can understand that even useless, unattractive, helpless, and hopeless items, people, places, can all be given purpose through my images. I love to find things that other people would not give a second look at, and give them a place in the aesthetic world. I want to lend beauty to things that aren't normally viewed as beautiful.
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L.A.: What are you looking to capture? and what connect past and presente in your shots?
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Sara Wallach: I am looking to capture a moment where pain and pleasure, sadness and joy are simultaneous. In that way all of our emotions and memories are connected in an instant. The past and present are held forever in the emotions of the image.
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L.A.: Can you comment one shot from this series? something about meanings or memories that emerges from that particular image..
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Sara Wallach: The picture where there is a shadow of hands reflected from a glass table... This moment made me feel like an artist. Every part of that experience was an artistic one. I was visually drawn to the light reflecting off of a glass coffee table, and then I began to interact with it, to play with it. I truly felt like I was experiencing magic, that is why that photo is entitled, "Magic". The role of the artist is to make something out of nothing; to create, but also to interact with their environment. I felt like I was doing both.
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L.A.: Hopes and projects for the future?
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Sara Wallach: I will be participating with other artists in a collaborative effort that I hope will push my work to a new level. I don't tend to think critically about my work, so it will be exciting to have more people around me whose art I appreciate, to give me feedback and advice.
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Dream Maintenance / Untitled
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Sara Sofia Wallach http://www.sarawallach.com
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