Sarah Hermans

1. what’s your philosophy?

I believe that what goes around, comes around. (Not that I never do or say the wrong things, but I think that when you try this, you’re already accomplishing a huge part of what Karma is about) I also don’t want to look back on life thinking anything that starts with ‘would have - could have or should have.’ And that’s a hard thing to accomplish, but I try. On another note, do you know the book ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’ from Foer? It almost felt like reading my soul, for example this line: ”I’m so afraid of losing something I love that I refuse to love anything”. It’s not a philosophy, It’s sad, but true, and I recognize myself in it. I do realize that means I should (ha there is the ‘should’) change something about my philosophy, but again, it’s not that easy.


2. in your ‘west usa’ series, you managed to capture landscapes and life/death with such a raw clarity, was your approach to these subjects different from your other work?

I started the trip after a few months of printing black and white and spending heaps of money, so I had no other option than using my digital camera. I did shoot one roll of film, but over a thousand digital ones in those 3 weeks. It’s easier to photograph digital, but I feel less connected to what I see, when I do so. I feel less and that’s why I stick to film. Probably because of the fact that I didn’t use film, it was easier for me to photograph, for example, that dead deer. I knew that if it would be too hard for me, I could delete it as soon as I had it. With film, it’s there, I can’t throw away film, so it would lay in your drawer, your room, your place, your life. It could be haunting in a way. Anyway, those weeks were the best weeks of my life. I’ve often said ‘let’s go somewhere unknown tomorrow’, but until january 2009 I never actually did it. It was beautiful, I’ve never been more grateful than I was then.

3. how many places have you traveled?

Not that many until last year, when I went abroad for a year. I shared a room with Sabrina and in that year I’ve been to quite some beautiful places in the US. New York was one of them. I loved the city, and admired how one could feel so at ease in such a big city. Ok, we woke up everyday by 7am to see New York awakening instead of rushing, but I still felt great there, while usually I prefere calmer places better. Another place I went to was Zion, where I forgot my heart, it’s so beautiful, the people were almost surreal. I don’t mean dreamlike, but beautifully down-to-earth, and not putting themselves but nature first, I must return there one day to pick my heart up again, and stay there for a bit. And become more like them.


4. a lot of your recent posted work is black and white. is there an aesthetic reason for this? do you self-develop/print? 



I miss colour terribly, but I just started studying photography in Sint Lukas, Brussels, and since our first year is black and white only, I barely/ don’t have time to shoot colour. I love black and white, printing it is nicer than colour, but it don’t think it’s as much my cup of tea as colour is.


5. the way you find your compositions and your light are remarkable, how often are these photos made on days that you go out specifically to take photos as opposed to days where you are just out and have a camera? do you always carry a camera with you? 


Most of them are taken on days where I accidentally have my camera with me. Accidentally, because I rarely have it with me. I wish I would take it more often, but I’m not a ‘decesive-moment’ photographer, so I’m not really needy of doing so. Unless I’m bored, or I have schoolassignments. Then mostly they’re made up in my head already, and selfportraitures. But I seem to love the ones taken on moments that were a coincidence of beauty, best. Light, discoveries of places, the clothes one wears that day, the way someone bends forward…

6. how do you feel about your photography? what part of you does it fulfill or drive?
Gosh… I like them, in that way that they’re memories. I have trouble remembering good things in life, I seem to forget them too easily. And my camera helps me with memorizing. And the images I took, whether they’re made up in my head first or not, whether they seem hopeful or melancholic or painful, they’re always about things that happened to me, things I felt or saw, and I’m happy they did, because they’re about life as I live it. I don’t think every image has an amusing story with it for strangers, but they do make me feel when I see them again. And some people seem to feel or see that for themselves, even though they weren’t there themselves. That’s fulfilling for me.



7. where do you see photography in your life in the future? 

For myself, everywhere, always. I really can’t be more specific.

8. one photographer/artist that everyone should check out right now?
Mark Borthwick

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