Sandra Lee Stark: -My Body- My Shelf Life- STILL in LIFE-
"MY BODY, MY SHELF LIFE: STILL IN LIFE". The work ranges from 2022 to 2025. Photography is the theatre of my life. Although my main interest is creating still lifes in landscapes, my physical health often intrudes and disrupts. This parallels my interest in disrupting the traditional still life genre. Many of my photographs are portraits of my 73 year old self with a desire to become part of nature again, no matter how chaotic. The unpredictability of the forces of nature is a constant drumbeat and very appealing to me. Working exclusively in the studio while referencing The Great Outdoors with the backdrops I choose, I construct theatrical still lifes referencing myths, self-portraiture, and historical still lifes; painted and photographic, and contemporizing them with humor and theatrical flair. Photography uniquely captures the collision of intentionality and chance.
Some of the photographs have specific back stories, based on my reading. “The Raft: Penelope” was inspired by The Odyssey; “Ophelia, 2021”, Hamlet- a more purposeful suicide than her usual representation dreamily floating on her back; In “Tally Tail Viola Lily”, hair is represented by strength and beauty and is sometimes its undoing. In The Odyssey, The Sirens represented temptation, half bird, half woman.
I am acutely aware and forever interested in contemporary photography while remaining true to my own personal narrative. Influences are many: Josef Svoboda’s scenic designs; William Henry Fox Talbot’s still lifes; Hippolyte Bayard’s, “Self Portrait as a Drowned Man” c.1840; the late photographer Laura Aguilar and painter Jenny Saville; and the color palette and surrealism of Paul Outerbridge.
