Photography / The haunting imagery of Sarah Wilmer
by New York photographer Sarah Wilmer creates dark, nightmare-inducing photographs that have a strange sense of innocence about them. They’re like movie stills, a cross between Lost Highway and Pan’s Labyrinth. We interviewed her recently to get the inside word on the inspirations behind her work.
Your photos have a cinematic quality to them. What films (or other medium) would you consider to be influences? ‘I love the work of Dario Argento, Roman Polanski, David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky. Their films are so beautiful and interesting, I would say all of them have influenced me in one way or another’.
Where do most of your shoots take place?
‘In and around New York City’.
What is the most elaborate shoot you can recall and what did it entail?
‘There isn’t one shoot that stands out as being particularly elaborate. It’s like you have an idea, and you make it happen. It’s work and challenging and sure there are a lot of details to manage, but when you are excited and passionate. it’s all just part of the process’.
If you could photograph anyone, who would it be? And where?
‘I’d like to do a series of photos with Joanna Newsom in Iceland with local animals and children’.
Where has your work been seen?
‘I have had solo shows in New York City, Washington D.C. and Portland Oregon. I have been in group shows in New York City, Los Angeles, Portland Oregon, Tokyo, St.Louis and Washington D.C. My work has been published in V Magazine, Korean Vogue, Vision, Surface, Rolling Stone, Spin, PDN, Billboard, Marie Claire, XLR8R, Tennis, Spex, and Nomenus Quarterly, among others’.
Tagged: New York, New York photographers, portraits
- 7
- 1
RELATED
Sara Macel’s Nighttime series shot around Brooklyn, New York, reminds me of the movie, 200 Cigarettes. Much like the movie, her photos have an energy of anticipation - like showing up two hours before the party gets going and then walking home at 5am before the sunrise. Read more
Shen Wei’s Almost Naked series
In my Personal Vision class at the International Center of Photography, one of our first assignments was to photograph a classmate naked. I was paired up with a guy who wasn’t keen on the assignment (he ended up backing out due to moral issues), and the opportunity to photograph a stranger in the nude is yet to come up again. Yet! With that in mind, we interviewed New York-based, Chinese photographer Shen Wei about his series Almost Naked and how he gets through those awkward moments. Read more
Albert Giordan is a New York-based photographer whose impressive client list references almost every big fashion house today. That means YSL, Alexander McQueen, and Armani, to name but a few. Read more
Also by ALISON WHITTINGTON
Jacqueline Di Milia grew up in America’s first mass produced suburbia, Levittown, New York. In Spring of 2005 she received a BFA in Photography from the School Of Visual Arts. After a few years of photo assisting with wide range of photographers, including Danielle Levitt and Cass Bird, she began shooting editorially in 2006. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York and obsessively watches French New Wave films. We interviewed her recently. Read more
Ryan Pfluger has an interesting collection of portraits up on his website. His subjects seem coolly detached from the moment, almost like mannequins in a storefront window. We interviewed him recently and asked him how he would describe his style? ‘I think my style is a real integration of photographers that inspired me when I was younger, with the present day aesthetics of the people that surround me. I am still inspired by people like Peter Hujar, Mapplethorpe, and Avedon. I think my style is a combination of clean, well lit intimate portraiture with an edge. However, you don’t need to be over the top to be edgy. I’m all about subtleness’. Read more
Annie Marie Musselman’s wildlife rehabilitation series
Annie Marie Musselman’s series, Finding Trust, explores a basic, yet rarely witnessed, connection that is possible between humans and wildlife. Through photos taken while working in a wildlife rehabilitation sanctuary, Musselman captures tender moments where animal’s lives are in the hands of humans, which for once, is a good thing. Read more
YOU'RE SAYING (1)
HAVE YOUR SAY
Born in Seoul Korea, but now working out of Los Angeles, Ramis Kim creates mixed media pieces which explore idealized childhood memories and invented narratives in imagined landscapes. An MFA graduate from Cal Arts in Valencia, Kim paints film and TV backgrounds when not creating her own art. Her work will be seen in a group show of Little Paper Plane artists, curated by Kelly Lynn Jones at Tinlark Gallery opening September 13. Read more
Despite their jarring name, British noise duo Fuck Buttons are surprisingly palatable. The band’s long, droning tracks are infused with sweet twinkles and sunny synth, but dark shards of ominous guitar overdrive and distorted screeches pierce the shimmering surface just when you’re ready to zone out. Danceable beats occasionally draw everything back together, creating a stormy, pulsing, and disorienting atmosphere.
I was rulking (half-run; half-walk) through the inner city a little while back, killing time and thoughts with mindless banter (yes, one way conversations have their benefits) when I noticed a grown man crying hysterically on the opposite side of the road to me. Read more
Love it or loathe it, you’ve got to admit that the ruffled blouses and strict pencil skirts on television series Gossip Girl give you a guilt-free reason to watch. 25-year-old former model Abigail Lorick was approached to ghost design the Eleanor Waldorf Collection by using her budding real life label Loricklady. The press surrounding the show has boosted her profile and her new collection featuring all the Upper East Side trimmings is greatly anticipated.
Back in the day, when I was a skinny teenager on the great pedestal of life, I had a real obsession for the understated, low-fi, deliciously melodic and somewhat blurry sounds of the New Zealand Flying Nun bands. I would pool my meagre savings and canvas the local record shops, scouring the racks for the latest cassettes from The Bats, The Chills, The Clean, and, later, The Straitjacket Fits. Read more
Print Liberation is an exceptional Philadelphia-based creative visual agency whose website showcases a variety of deisgn styles, each immaculately executed. Read more
Fresh fruit? Yes please! Never mind that I had just finished a cottage pie as big as my face. I was going to have a punnet of those raspberries. I couldn’t help myself. Really. They were just sitting so pretty alongside the luscious apples and pears lining the rickety stalls of London’s Soho Fruit Markets, I just couldn’t restrain myself. And it seemed that I wasn’t the only one. Read more
WE'RE RESPECTING
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Web design can be kinda tricky and expensive. Hell, we should know: it took us ages to get this current design for Lost At E Minor together. And costs? Our mate Uge from Aquabumps reckons he needed a second mortgage to fund his latest redesign indulgence. Read more
The pre-revolution artwork of Xiaoqing Ding
New York-based artist Xiaoqing Ding’s work draws from traditional Sung Dynasty scroll paintings as well as from more recent forms, her figures looking as much like the cherubic babies in festive Chinese New Year art (known as Nian Hua) as they do the sultry flappers in cigarette ads in 1930s Shanghai. Her images have an ethereal and slyly erotic quality, referencing Chinese mythology, pre-revolution film, and subtly personal narratives. Read more
Beverly St. Clair’s Genome quilts
Artist Beverly St. Clair has translated the four DNA bases into certain shapes and patterns, which she uses to translate genomes into beautiful quilts.
I love art that scares me a little. Erica Eyres somehow manages to make subtly unnerving drawings of distorted figures using nothing more than a ballpoint pen and a piece of paper. She renders shockingly realistic hair, yet skews the proportions and features of her subjects, exaggerating their expressions and making them look monstrous.
If you’ve ever wanted to work your alter ego’s dark side without looking like a total emo, now’s your chance. New kid on the block Ben Pollitt is shaking things up with his label Friedrich Gray. And the best part about it? Pollitt’s androgynous range has a little something something for everyone. Read more
SHOP
As a special offer to our readers, the very cool Illiterate tee — designed by WeMe Creative, a group based in Hong Kong and Sydney — is now available just $30 through the Lost At E Minor online store.
We have eight Familjen CDs to give away to new Australian based Lost At E Minor subscribers who can tell us what ‘Familjen’ translates to in English. Read more
Discuss
- Zolton on "Men's Accessories - Chronicles of Never and others"
- Andy on "Men's Accessories - Chronicles of Never and others"
- Zolton on "Men's Accessories - Chronicles of Never and others"
- Zolton on "Alex Pardee Interview"
- Zolton on "A unique International posterdesign contest launched!"
- PictureChallenge2008 on "A unique International posterdesign contest launched!"
- PictureChallenge2008 on "A unique International posterdesign contest launched!"
- rocknonstop on "Alex Pardee Interview"
Recently
- Diner, Williamsburg Ilana Kohn
- Fossil Fuels Brewing Company Gerry Mak
- The Internet was Closed Shirts Gerry Mak
- Beverly St. Clair’s Genome quilts Gerry Mak
- Kim Rosen Zolton
- Why are we not perfect? Derrick Stembridge
- iPod fridge-freezer by Gorenje Derrick Stembridge
- Songsterr Derrick Stembridge
- William Hundley Gerry Mak
- Metallica’s Death Magnetic Gerry Mak
DISCOVER MORE
SO...
TAGS: 1980s acoustic music animals animation Australian artists Australian bands black and white illustrations black and white photography blogs Brooklyn Brooklyn artists cartoons China collaboration colour colourful illustrations comics electronic music flash games folk music Hip Hop Japan London Los Angeles magazines Melbourne New York New York artists New York bands New York illustrators New York photographers pop music portrait portraits prints rock music San Francisco soul music street art street fashion Sweden Sydney t-shirts Tokyo UK bands
IMAGES:
POPULAR:
- Brittanie Pendleton - loved 47 times
- Elaine Biss's feminine charms - loved 24 times
- Prefab House - loved 19 times
- Andreco's brilliant visions - loved 17 times
- Dongyun Lee - loved 13 times
- Fly Apart - loved 13 times
- His name is Moofus, watch him draw - loved 13 times
SEARCH: Can't find what you're looking for? Do a search..
IS IT GOOD FOR YOU TOO?
We hope you're enjoying your time on Lost At E Minor, but it’s not over yet. Got something to share? Tell us about it and we'll look to publish it. If you want to have your work featured on the site, we'd love to hear from you. Or if you’d just like to talk amongst yourselves, that’s cool too. Pssst, we also have an online store stocking some of the goodies we feature on the site.
If you're a media agency and want to use this platform to connect with our readership, then drop us a line and tell us about it. Oh yeah, and we do digital consulting for cool brands that want to reach the sort of demographic that visits this site.
Melissa Kojima - Artist in LA LA Land said | 19 July, 2008
Amazing photos. So hauntingly beautiful. Her portraits are rich and the winter series is just magical.