LA-based Sara Jane Boyers returned to photography after careers in music and publishing. Her interest is the American Story, searching the everyday for presence and social meaning.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, including the Venice Biennale/Architecture2016, France’s Lille3000/RENAISSANCE, Australia’s FOTOFRIO/FRINGE and China’s A3rdANNUAL INDUSTRIAL PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL 2019.
Her photographic projects are often long-term. They include DETROIT:DEFINITION, exploring the city of her birth, and FINDING CHINATOWN:AN AMERICAN STORY. During the pandemic years, she captured and produced a book, THE GHOSTLIGHT PROJECT, photographing live performance venues in peril during the shutdown of public space.
A published author/editor, the 25th Anniversary Edition of her award-winning book, LIFE DOESN’T FRIGHTEN ME, pairing Jean-Michel Basquiat’s art with Maya Angelou’s poetry, was recently released. Some work can be seen on her still-in-process website, sarajaneboyers.com
STATEMENT:
Near the beach in Los Angeles where I was raised, still live and work, I am wrapped in the gray morning fog of coastal California. Like so many of the California artists who inspire me, my photographic vision is fueled by this marine filter where description is possible without precision and sharpness sifts through ambiguity. It is in this space where the edge is not so specifically defined that I am most comfortable and where I find what I search for as an artist: seemingly empty spaces/moments that form a narrative that entices us in.
All the while I am reminded of the words of Robert Adams: “At our best and most fortunate we make pictures because of what stands before our camera, to honor what is greater and more interesting than we are.”
Whether my work is inspired by the grand and complex story of Detroit; the energy of the Chinatowns; the gritty highways of LA; or evocative silence in public space; my focused projects are contemplative and open ended, tending to be organized from a fine art perception rather than by classic photojournalism and, while often still quite literal, curious in their perspective. Whether marine layer or the icy brilliance of a winter urban landscape, light and texture are critical. Most significant: presence.
With my camera, I respond to life by recording experience hard to define, perhaps adding to my own biography as I capture that of others.
