Sarah Palmer received her MFA from School of Visual Arts in 2008, where she was awarded an Aaron Siskind Scholarship, and her BA from Vassar in 1999. Her work has been exhibited in the US and abroad, most notably at Brooklyn’s Like The Spice Gallery, the Center for Photography at Woodstock, in satellite exhibitions at the New York Photo Festival in 2009 and 2011, and at Foam, Amsterdam, as well as in Dublin, Berlin, and Madrid, among other cities and spaces. Her writing has been published in print and online journals and catalogs, including Foam’s What’s Next project in summer 2011. She was awarded the 2011 Aperture Portfolio Prize and has had solo exhibitions at Wild Project, in 2010, and at Aperture Gallery in fall 2012. Her most recent group exhibitions were The Sentimental Landscape, at the New Hampshire Institute of Art and Useful Pictures, at Michael Matthews Gallery, New York City, in spring 2013. She is on the full-time photography faculty at Parsons The New School for Design and the Board of Directors of Rooftop Films. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
THE VILLAGE OF REASON
The Village of Reason represents a search for tranquility, for “reason” and resurrection, amid the tumult of contemporary life – while acknowledging that chaos is inherent in existence. Unlike traditionally photographic projects, I do not set out for myself parameters that take me to specific places to explore specific subjects. Rather, my work must emerge from my interior practice, from what I read and discover in the world, and bring back to my studio to study or build. The pictures in The Village of Reason fit, perhaps awkwardly, into various photographic genres, with images ranging from the seemingly straight to the experimental. The possible disjointedness of these studies is purposeful: I hope that the viewer will question the connections and contradictions within the works as I present them. The series asks questions but does not necessarily provide answers, is rooted in metaphor, meant to be interrogated, as one would read a poem. Herein, one can view desires both personal and universal, as well as uncertainties and doubts about femininity and identity.
To view more of Sarah’s work, please visit her website.