“I would like to make a photo where nothing happens”

“Black And White Poems”

Vogue Turkey (March 2012)

Photographer: Sarah Moon

Stylist: Sebastian Kaufmann

Models: Codie Young and Nina Porter

Frank Horvat : Another issue that seems to preoccupy you is commercial work. You often insist that working on assignment is not necessarily an obstacle to creativity. I wouldn’t dream of contradicting you about this, but I wonder if that is the real problem. For me the problem lies not so much in the assignment, as in the staging. Can a photo be directed, like a movie? Is directing compatible with the essence of photography?

Sarah Moon : I’ve always felt that photography provides an opportunity for staging, for telling a story through images. What I aim at, is an image with a minimum of information and markers, that has no reference to a given time or place – but that nevertheless speaks to me, that evokes something which happened just before or may happen just after. I know that many people question this way of photographing, but why should there be only one sort of photography? I want to create images with elements of my choosing, narrative or evocative, beyond the document about that particular woman wearing that dress. I give myself a literary frame, I tell a story. It’s the only springboard I have found for taking a leap. On the other hand, I am interested in commercial photography because it provides me with a purpose. The agreement between client and photographer seems perfectly fair to me. They give me the opportunity to make images, on condition that I show their product in a favorable light. I get paid for doing it and am given the means to do it well. This submits me to a discipline, which is something I need, because for me it’s easier to do things when I find myself obliged to do them. To do them just for my pleasure would seem irrelevant.

Excerpt from a conversation between Frank Horvat and Sarah Moon (November 1986). You can read it in full here.

For those interested in Sarah Moon’s work beyond her fashion photography, the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris is currently running an exhibition entitled PastPresent. I doubt I will be able to attend before the exhibition closes, but I definitely have my eye on the exhibition catalogue!

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