Sarah Moon ”At the still point”

Sarah Moon (b. 1941) is a French photographer. Beginning as a model in the 1960s, she practiced photography as an autodidact before working on her first fashion campaigns ⎯ particularly the images she created for the Cacharel brand rapidly drew international attention. In the middle of the 1980s, Moon deepened the focus on her personal approach as well as her research on story-making and the fictional space of photography.

Sarah Moon’s work shapes a visual world that is instantly recognized as hers – unfolding like in a story – the characters move through a time which has been lifted from what is ordinary. The sensation of being inside a plot is amplified by the literary and cinematographic references in her work. Epochs, just as surfaces, shadows and memories, are blurred and what is matte and what is shimmer melt together in light of its own.

“It could happen any day anytime any season – I am outside – walking wherever – Cars and people whirling around – fleeting thoughts vanishing through my mind – probably dealing with what I am out for – or supposed to be out for – But there is nothing I can grab – I am just there in ”the turning world “— Daily life driving me out of control – when suddenly – unexpectedly – a sign – a tree that lifts my eye up to the sky when in the wind a cloud is passing by – or a sun-ray breaking a shape on a wall or its shadow projecting leaves on the pavement – or whatever wakes up my sight and I see what I am seeing – even better I charge it of what I feel – and then – suddenly I am alone – nobody there – no sound but my camera’s shutter – trying – clicking around – and sometimes – yes – Yes I am at the still point – “the still point of the turning world”…and there the dance is.”

— Sarah Moon