Sarah Hadley: Story Lines
Story Lines is a series of intimate, cinematic narratives that blur the boundaries between reality and fiction. Inspired by French New Wave cinema, particularly Agnès Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7, the project explores the tension between external beauty and internal psychological complexity against the backdrop of the 1960s and women’s changing roles in society.
French New Wave filmmakers brought a feminist lens to storytelling, revealing the inner lives of strong, independent women who navigated their world with elegance and tenacity. They celebrated newfound autonomy while confronting the lingering constraints of patriarchy.
In this series, I create layered, dreamlike film stills that imagine the interior worlds of women who were redefining their place in society. Mysterious male presences serve as reminders of the lingering patriarchy. By isolating female figures in surreal landscapes illuminated by dramatic light and shadow, the work reflects this search for autonomy and identity within a shifting cultural landscape.
What I Remember
Crossing Paris
Boy Butterfly
Chance Encounter
Climbing Mountains
Escape
Interior Staircase
Italian Street Reflection
Looking for Answers
Moonrise
Paris Story
Turning from the Light
Ghosts
Holding On, Letting Go
Bio
Sarah Hadley is a Los Angeles based artist whose narrative work focuses on issues of memory, place and identity. Originally from Boston, Hadley received degrees in Art History and Italian from Georgetown University, and Photography from the Corcoran College of Art. She lived in Washington DC, Italy and the UK before moving to Chicago where she founded the Filter Photo Festival in 2009. Hadley has received grants from the Illinois Arts Council, the Chicago Artist Foundation, the California Center for Cultural Innovation, as well as Fellowships from the Ragdale Foundation. Hadley has had solo shows in museums and galleries throughout the US including Afterimage Gallery, the Loyola Museum of Art, the Griffin Museum of Photography, and dnj Gallery. Her work has also been exhibited in photography festivals in France, China, Australia, India and Portugal and been featured in numerous magazines, blogs and publications including Le Monde, Elle Italia, L’Oeil de la Photographie and Lenscratch. In 2020, her first monograph Lost Venice was published by Damiani Editore and is now in the collection of the Getty Research library, the Huntington Library, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Her photographs are held in public and private collections worldwide.