Interview Lia Sáile
Photography requires passion and devotion to become an instrument of art.
Name: Lia Sáile
Hometown: I was raised in the Ruhr area in Germany, in a small industrial town known for lock-smithing and key production, surrounded by a forest, fields and industrial areas. Currently I work and live in San Pawl Il-Bahar, Malta, by the sea and in Vienna, Austria, where I studied.
Style of photography: This question to me is as unanswerable as the question "What do you photograph? People? Landscape?". So far I am happy not to be able to answer well. If there is a "style" to my work then others probably are more aware of it and able to articulate it than me.
Type of cameras: Polaroid SX 70 Alpha 1 and the 350 Polaroid Land Camera (next to a digital SLR)
Website:www.Scattered-Sea.com, Blog “7 Seas”
What gives you inspiration?
Inspiration usually is unexpected, as many things in life. To me it often comes in phases in which one becomes extremely sensitive towards and accessible for things one is surrounded by and confronted with – visually, accoustically, haptic… In that time absolutely anything can suddenly trigger the spark and inspire. In my case it often happens for example in relation with memory which is activated or with recurring ideas and themes which begin to form patterns together. Then anything “related” begins to imbue creative senses. But as mentioned, in the end anything can suddenly inspire, either through its aestethical/visual qualities or through its subjectively associated context.
Personally – when not photographing on a specific artistic concept or theme for a project – I am extremely receptive to all kinds of traces of inhabitants in and around their houses/living spaces (for example laundry lines, curtains, furniture, caravans, open doors and windows, ventilators, bathrooms, unmade beds, details of a place’s “history” such as damaged wallpapers or old stains on table cloths…) as well as the human figure and face in their versatile details. These are extremely nourishing and inspirational to me and continue filling my personal work and professional portfolio equally.
What are your influences?
Influences are diversified as I work and study in multiple fields of artistic creation ranging from theatre, film and music to visual arts. Next to painters and photographers (Edward Hopper, Frida Kahlo, Nan Goldin to name a few) – especially cinema (European and Asian) and theatre (Expressive Dance, Dance Theatre, Eastern Theatre, Grotowskian directions etc.) might to some degree have influenced my recent aesthetic directions in photography.
Why did you choose these photos?
First of all, they are Polaroids, an analogue medium in its purest form which was close to dead but has a chance of revival thanks to The Impossible Project. I am very closely connected to this medium, its tangibility, immediacy, unique aesthetics and the inherent element of chance. It produces a unique original which is the complete opposite of our current cultural direction of mass-reproduction.
What does photography mean to you?
Photography requires passion and devotion to become an instrument of art. Like any other medium it needs time and attention. Photography is a means to either artistically create time, space and emotion or to observingly document those three elements.
Photos:
Copyright reserved by Lia Sáile
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