10 minutes with Sarah Wilmer

13 Feb

When did you first know that you wanted to be a photographer?

 

Growing up, I often invented scenarios for my friends and siblings to act out, I’d use disposable, Polaroid or video cameras from Walmart to document our activities.
It was when I  took a photography class at St.Louis Community College and watched the first image appear in the dark room that I got really excited. I loved the whole process and this was also the first time in my life that I realized I could be a photographer.

 

Sarah Wilmer

Sarah Wilmer

Sarah Wilmer

Sarah Wilmer

Sarah Wilmer


Who were some of the first photographers that inspired you?

The first photographers I learned about and were inspired by, were the Surrealists, Edward Steichen, Julia Margaret Cameron, Diane Arbus, Cindy Sherman, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, my teachers and my friends.

 

Sarah Wilmer

Sarah Wilmer

Sarah Wilmer

 

Can you tell me a little bit about your project, The Small Hours? The images have a sort of dream-like quality to them, what was your inspiration and how much time did you spend on that series?

I spent five years working on the photographs that make up The Small Hours.

The inspiration came from creatures, people, travel, time and places as well as certain feelings I was experiencing and ideas I was thinking about.

 

Sarah Wilmer

Sarah Wilmer

Sarah Wilmer

Sarah Wilmer


If you could go back ten years, what advice would you give yourself?

A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner

Worry gives a small thing a big shadow

It is difficult to catch a black cat in a dark room, especially when it is not there

The person who doesn’t scatter the morning dew will not comb gray hairs

Do not put your spoon into the pot which does not boil for you

If you run after two hares, you will catch neither

The morning hour has gold in its mouth

Those who dislike cats will be carried to the cemetery in the rain

 

(Sarah is based in New York. See more of her work, here)

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