#POLAROIDWEEK | Sarah Seené
So it’s World Polaroid Week! To mark the occasion we caught up with ethereal photographer Sarah Seené who at 28, is already a pretty hot name in the Polaroid world.
Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? How did you get into Photography?
I'm Sarah Seené, a French photographer working with instant photography, more precisely Polaroid. My world is composed of a strange atmosphere, somewhere between dreams and poetry, tinted with childhood and loneliness my images are suspended in time and the unreal.
I'm part of The 12.12 project and World Wide Women, two international collectives of female analogue photographers. I'm also the co-founder of a long distance collaboration project called I'll be your mirror, with the American photographer Sarah Elise Abramson.
What influences your image making?
First of all, the places that come to me. When a place calls me, I begin to imagine some mises-en-scènes with my friends or myself (for my self-portrait series); they inspire me as much as the place does. Music is an inspiration as well, more precisely artists like Bjork, Cocorosie, Emilie Simon, Warpaint or Moriarty.
Out of all the different ways of creating images, why Polaroids?
Off the top of my head, magic! Every Polaroid you create becomes a unique object with its own unpredictability. I love its little square format and its grain.
Some of your most recent images have been cropped to look like regular film photos whilst others have the white frame which is a classic Polaroid giveaway, is this a purposefully made decision?
Yes it is. For the past two years, I've been focusing on the image within the frame, mainly for social media and website. I think it's a way to see more details.
Do you have a favourite piece of work?
My favourite is a self-portrait named The Lamp Crying Stars because in my opinion it's the best superposition I did with the wet lift technique. This work reminds me a wonderful moment in Berlin, two years ago.
Your images have a faded vintage wash to them which produces a gorgeous dreamlike feeling, is this something that simply comes with working with the right film/camera, or do you have to do any editing?
I never use Photoshop to modify my images. Everything is hand-made. There's a unique aesthetic that comes with Polaroid films but it's mainly the
way you work with light and the camera settings during shooting that influences the result.
Could you tell me about your decision to incorporate text in several of the series?
I love poetry and this is a way to create my own poems with fragmented texts. They bring something more to the images, they complete them.
Tell us about your influences, who are your favourite Polaroid photographers?
Tim Walker is my favourite photographer even though he doesn't always work with Polaroid. I love the work of Cathleen Naundorf and Andreï Tarkovski's polaroids. I recommend discovering the work of Thomas Zamolo, Bastan Kalous, Agafa Polynchuk, Amanda Mason, Sarah. Elise Abramson, Marion Lanciaux, Emile AhbahBravo, Carmen De Vos, Penny Felts... just to name a few.
In an ideal world with unlimited time and resources, what would be your dream shoot?
A series with Bjork!
Finally, what are you planning next? What would you like to do this year?
I moved to Montreal three months ago and I really want to explore the possibilities that Quebec's landscapes have to offer. I'd like to do artist residencies to expand my practice and revisiting 35mm analogue photography would be nice.
