Sarah Sitkin Interview

Monday, July 7th, 2008
by Greg

I’m very excited to have had the chance to interview photographer Sarah Sitkin. She is a very talented 24 year old photographer living in Downtown LA, CA. See we both share same taste in photographers. Cause we both love the photography stylings Philippe Halsman. Which is one of the things that attracted me to her… for this interview. She described her self to me as “The love child of Tank Girl and Cindy Lauper.” With that I bring you the interview with the Sarah Sitkin and her captivating imagery.

Photos

Exclusive Self-Portrait of Sarah Sitkin

When she told me about the self-portrait she was doing just for us I was a little surprised and honored. Over the past few days I’ve been growing with excitement waiting to see what she was creating and oh boy she doesn’t disappoint! Click the photo to see it larger and to taken in the essence that which is Sarah.

I find your work in some what resembles my personal favorite photographer David LaCappelle. How do you about being compared to him?

I don’t like being compared to anyone, because all my ideas start and finish in my own mind. When i first saw his work through my friend Max, i was not impressed. (? thank god we get wiser as we grow up) I love his work, and think he has an amazing catalogue of experience that obviously fuels him. I would say that its most likely two things; that we probably have some similar brain wavelengths, and he’s arguably the most famous photographer of our time, and so an easy icon to be compared to.

From looking at your photographs one gets a true sense that you love color. What draws you to shooting color over the monochromatic scale?

In kindergarden, when they ask you the notorious question “what do you want to be when you grow up?”,  someone said “i want to be a black police officer”. i wish i said that. instead, i said, “i want to be a famous artist”. i still have the paper i wrote it on, its in my mother’s closet. that has nothing to do with the question actually.

Color is a holy word that i think should be capitalized or at least in bold or something, like they do in cult pamphlets and religious propaganda. COLOR is the closest thing to God that i can dance with. If you really think about it, color is a system of mathematics, perfect, numbers that always balance themselves in the proper equation. The sentiment and emotion that each hue carries changes depending on the context, coupled with the shadows and highlights, emphasized through saturation, reinforced by the invisible architecture of composition creates an infinite way of reaching harmony. the best part is that ALL of us instinctually know each way, but no one can ever teach the equation that governs it.  I guess it only corrodes the wonder when you try to assign words to these sacred concepts. Fuck art school, have you seen the garbage that spews out of that awful machine?

Who, what, and where do you pull your inspiration from?

Shit… LIFE. the experience, the ride, the idea that photography is capturing a knot on a very long string. the string being time, the knot being a clot of human experience, emotion, an epiphany found in a dream, a symposium, a solstice. Sometimes the knot is tied because of the camera, sometimes the camera is there to untie a knot i’ve been carrying already.  And sometimes, its not really a knot, but like, one of those jumbles that happens when you’re sewing, and all you have to do is stop and pull it and it unfurls itself. 

You live in California tell us what it’s like being a photographer there?

I live in Downtown Los Angeles, specifically. And i am so incredibly taken with the characters that swarm the streets down here. I live in a shit-hole hotel on 5th and main, called the Rosslyn. When i walk out onto the street, its a circus. Its absolute insanity. Its kind of eating me alive i will say. You really have to make yourself a vulnerable, mutable gas of sorts to run with the street people. Ugh, i don’t know. the whether is nice, the air will corrode your face in a week. its paradise. Mostly because i live 3 blocks from anything i could ever want in the material world, and wholesale to boot. 

How long have you been shooting and who got you started in it?

HA! omfg rofflecopter down we need assistance. Bless his heart, but i have to speak the truth on this… (IM SORRY OX!) I was a painter for the first 4/5 of my life, and my friend Ox had just got scholarship to art school in Chicago, on the most mediocre portfolio i have ever had to bear. I mean, B&W photos of trash-cans, center frame, no nuance or faschima about it.  He’s an aries, and I’m a leo, so our entire bond was held together on competition, so I picked up my parent’s whopping 1.7 megapixel camera and started fucking around with photography. But don’t get me wrong, I LOVE his stuff now, he’s documenting the vogue and ball scene in chicago, by way of capturing the apex of awkward scenario awkwardness. I cant tell if its on purpose or not. Either way, I’m seduced, and it takes me there. 

At that time i started shooting, i had reached a block with my painting because i couldn’t render my imagination in the stark realism that it exist as, and i found photography to be the ideal way to paint. In addition, it was right in heat of transition from film to digital, and huge leaps were being made in technology, and it was like surfing an enormous technology wave alongside my generation. 

Do you still paint?

Yeah sometimes. 

What was the determining factor in choosing Canon as your weapon of choice?

Well i had used basic point and shoot canons, so i was familiar with the menu system, and i had friends who used nikons and friends who used canons, and when seeing the results of both side by side, there was absolutely no question that canon was far superior in color, shadow detail, optics and build quality. My canon 5d has stood the test of time… it has survived a motorcycle wreck, a trip to rainy-season thailand (twice), 4 months in china, a cross country road-trip (twice), and countless drops, splashes, knocks and idiots who i let use it (one actually bent the pins in my c.f. terminal because he forced the card in backwards so violently.) of course i had it repaired by canon when i got home, all covered on the camera’s amazing warranty plan.

Do currently sell your work anywhere?

I sell prints to people who ask for them. I do do photoshoots for specific people i find interesting as long as they agree to surrender all notions and ideas in favor of my own vision. I’ve tried executing other people’s ideas and i have a panic attack/life crisis/emotional breakdown. I cant do it.  Its hard for me try and market my work, i am 94% running on right brain, with the financial ambition of a 4 year old.  I am too good at spending money to try and figure out how to make it.  

Once your vision of what the shot is going to be in your head. How long does it take on average to have it completed?

The cycle gets longer as i get older, and i my ideas get my intricate. it used to be about 2 hours when i was a kid, now its anywhere from 2 days, to a week.

Could you tell me about when your photos first started to receive a lot of attention from the internet community and how it effected you in anyway?

Funny thing, on flickr, my best friend at the time Flip, and a crew of hooligans went out to some train tracks at the top of a hill in the valley, with the goal of taking a photograph that would get on flickr’s Explore. It was a success, and i think that was the point when people started paying attention, after that photo. That was the night i got my strobes, and the first photo i took with them. 

Its been really amazing, having so much attenetion over the photographs. Lots of new friends, lots of adventures worldwide, and lots of feedback and growth have come out of it. 

If you can hope to leave one impression with your photographs what would that be?

I think i need to be 20 years older to answer that question, i dont know right now, im just following my instincts.

Linkage:

• Sarah’s Photostream ( on flickr )
• An interview with her from 2007 ( spanish )
• Sarah’s Myspace ( friend her up )
• Sarah on DripBook ( online porfolio )

Thank you so much Sarah for doing an Exclusive photo shoot for us. As I said before I’m very honored you did that. I hope everyone enjoys your interview & photos as much as I do. I can’t wait to hear people’s responses.