Sarah Hadley: Story Lines
In Story Lines, I am creating intimate cinematic narratives which blur the boundaries between reality and fiction. Inspired by the French New Wave cinema and in particular, Agnes Varda’s masterpiece Cleo from 5 to 7, the project focuses on the tension between exterior beauty and internal psychological complexity.
In these surreal narratives, I reassemble and reorganize my own photographs to discover new truths and possibilities. Using the visual rhythms of the natural world, architecture and shadow to illuminate the drama, the images become ethereal impressions enriched by the use of bold black and white imagery. The soft transparency of morning light bathing the streets or streaming through the misty landscape envelops figures in solitary contemplation and gives poetic weight to the moment.
Story Lines focuses on the confluence of our inner and outer lives. By isolating women in illusory settings, I investigate these liminal, transient moments, and allow unspoken memories, dreams and desires to emerge.
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.