Sarah R. Bloom Photography

Shine an ever-loving light on me

Shine an ever-loving light on me, originally uploaded by sadandbeautiful (Sarah).

Eastern State Penitentiary, prison cell.

Shot on 35mm film with Pentax P30t.

The City in Winter

The City in Winter, originally uploaded by sadandbeautiful (Sarah).

Holga, double exposure.

Philadelphia. January 2010

Guilty as Sin

Guilty as Sin, originally uploaded by sadandbeautiful (Sarah).

Cell in Eastern State Penitentiary.

Shot with 35mm Film in a Pentax P30t camera, a lovely gift from friend Melanie. It belonged to her father.

On Film

I recently had three rolls of color 120 C-41 film developed that I had shot with my Holga camera, as well as a roll of color 35mm film from a Pentax that was given to me as a gift. The images were shot between January and July.

Shooting film is expensive when you don't develop the images yourself, but I'm not in a place where I'm ready to set up a dark room. I may look into "in the bag" developing of BW film because I can scan in the negatives myself to my computer.

While it can be expensive, shooting film is a great exercise, especially after shooting primarily digital for so long. It forces me to slow down and think harder about what I shoot and how to compose it. It forces me to be patient with the unknown when I am so used to the instant satisfaction of seeing that image appear on the back LCD display. It is so easy when shooting digital to fire off several shots for each moment, knowing there will be one you can make work. So easy to be lazy about various aspects of photography when you know there are so many 'fixes' in post-processing. 

And there is really nothing that looks quite like it when you are done. I'll be sharing more film shots in the coming weeks.

Opening Night

This past Saturday was the opening of The Art of the State: Pennsylvania 2010 exhibit put on by the Greater Harrisburg Arts Council at The State Museum of Pennsylvania. 150 works were selected from over 2,000 entries and it is a great honor to be selected! 

The opening event was fantastic. It is such a thrill to get there and rush around trying to find where your artwork is hanging, then take a step back and take it all in. The show is truly incredible. Works are chosen in 5 categories: Paintings, Works on Paper, Sculpture, Crafts, and Photography. The curators put the photography all together in one sort of alcove section and it is an impressive display. As you make your way around the vast gallery space, there are gems everywhere you look. I was in very talented company across every discipline. Reaction to my piece was mixed, from what I could tell. I didn't have my daughter there with me to eavesdrop like she did two years ago when I had a piece in the show. Some women seemed to dismiss it because there was nudity, others were drawn to it for the same reason, but when I caught someone really "feeling it," it was a thrill.

One moment that stands out for me in the night was when I stopped to admire a beautiful woodcut print and there was a man standing next to me doing the same. We both stood there for a good minute with slight grins on our faces, so to solidify that we were sharing an appreciation for the piece, I turned to him and said, "It's not often you see woodcuts!" He glanced at me, not wanting to break his gaze from the piece, and said, "That's my son. So many hours of work went into this..." and it was such a beautiful thing to witness this father's total pride and awe in what his son had created (Matthew L. Colaizzo).

Some of the other work that stood out for me that night include the first prize winner in Crafts, Larry Shull, who created a gorgeous kinetic sculpture called Play in a Round, and the third prize winner in Crafts, Heather Ujiie for her incredibly impressive digital ink-jet print on silk panels called The Garden of Eden. I took pause at Christopher Kline's Leaf Footed Bug, a plastic pencil on drafting film piece with gorgeous detail, Kate Shelley's silver gelatin print, Fade (and a lovely young woman to meet), Felicia Perretti's powerful black and white photograph, The Car Seat Fight, and Shelly I. Lependorf & Stan Shire's stunning photograph, Horizon Fields II. There were many more, but it will take me ages to list them all, and I am going by memory and the catalog that has no thumbnail image at the moment!

The show is on display through September 12th, when Harrisburg holds its Annual Gallery Walk. I highly recommend you stop in if you are anywhere near or find yourself passing through. I will be taking a second trip there later in July with my girlfriends to look at everything again. :)

"You're in it right now, aren't you?"

I'm vying for the title of Worst Blogger. I think I'm doing pretty well, don't you? :-)

I've been "in it" as Natalie Portman's character Sam says in one of my favorite movies, Garden State.

There's movement though. And plans. Always plans.

Here's some recent self-portraits in case you missed them...

Decontamination

Did I Mention?

that I was accepted this year into The Art of the State: Pennsylvania 2010? No?

I had a self-portrait shown in 2008 and then last year I did not get accepted. This year I submitted three entries and only one of them was a self-portrait. I hoped that my photo of my friend Denise might get in if any of them did, as that cemetery photo shoot is one of my favorite sessions and the picture in particular is my favorite of the batch.

Plus, how cool to have a photo I took of my beautiful friend (and muse and goddess and amazing woman and photographer) got to hang in the State Museum in Harrisburg, Pa?!

Very, very cool indeed.

Post-Apocalyptic Daydream

I’ve been struggling wondering how to write about my experiences in Detroit a couple weeks ago. There was so much that was overwhelming about the trip that no words I come up with seem to do it justice. There were layers of experience too, so in essence there are several trips about which to write.

On one level it was a wonderful visit to spend time with two lovely women I’ve come to adore through photography; to discover that we three were able to spend an entire week together with the greatest of ease and comfort; to learn more ways in which each of these women are generous, kind, beautiful people; to meet many new photographers and friends. It was an opportunity to connect with a powerhouse of a woman who shares very similar ideas about self-portraits and taking them in abandoned locations. It was a week when I could do nothing but enjoy photography and companionship with people who wanted to do the same.

It was a week for me to explore self-portraiture and immerse myself in the decaying environments that call to me so strongly; and for me to work on pushing past my hang-ups and try to say something meaningful.

Seeing all the raw decay for myself was powerful and eye opening. It felt like walking around in a strange dream state where nothing was quite real or rather, like a hyper reality. Every single street in and around Detroit is cavernous in its emptiness. There are whole blocks with only one house standing, whole neighborhoods of empty buildings. It feels like a future that is not too far off and it buzzes on the surface of the skin. It echoes in the spaces of the heart.

But above all that, it was also a time to recognize the hope and raw creative talent that is continually arising out of the ashes that is Detroit. There is a thriving art community of young(er) people who want desperately to reinvent the city, and they are working at it tirelessly. There are communities turning decay into art and empty lots into literal gardens. I waited to watch the BBC documentary Requiem for Detroit until I returned so that I wouldn’t be colored by it’s commentary and discovered that they communicate so very well my thoughts and impressions while there. I strongly encourage you to take the time to watch it (it’s just over an hour long) when you can.

It was an incredibly prolific trip for me, photographically (artistically). I took some of the best photos I’ve yet to take during my time there and I immediately began thinking about returning. I will be creating at least one if not two collections of images into book form and offer up prints for sale for the whole purpose of paying for another trip out there.

Here is an attempt at a free form poem I scrawled when I was struggling to write about my trip, following an embedded slide show of my Motor City set on Flickr. There are a large quantity of self-portraits that will not be viewable to you if you do not have a Flickr account (you can get one for free) because of the safety filters. If you have an account, you can turn off your safe search or at least get to see a fuzzy image you can click through to see the real one, otherwise you wouldn’t know you are missing anything.

 

 

post-apocalyptic daydream

my surrealist amusement park driven into ecstasy

as a thousand shutter clicks go pop

up into the atmosphere of smoke and ruin

a million wishes for better days

a million images for better ways of living

and

dying

and

getting through

these shattered illusions are now nothing

but empty streets

and

empty sleeps

no more dreams only nightmares

of what is most certainly to come

for our cities

for our homes

for our countries

and

our roads

and most especially

for our bodies

and whatever else is left

our children

take the remains

and

grow

 

 

Out of Tune

My trip comes to an end tomorrow morning. This week flew by so fast I can hardly believe it. So much to tell you about. So many photos to process. And one more adventure this afternoon.