Last Updated on 03/25/2024 by Chris Gampat
When most photographers say that they find inspiration in everything, I typically want to roll my eyes. But when Suzanne Saroff tells us that it’s all part of her intuition and emotions, we naturally want her to elaborate more. “My brain is constantly making connections to things and thinking about ways to explore the feeling through my lens,” she tells the Phoblographer. “I could be inspired walking past a restaurant and glancing at a couple in the window tangled up together while they drink wine. Or even the weird, unpleasant little things like opening up the fridge and the lettuce is a few days too old sitting in its sludge.” Sometimes, it’s even things like a twig snapping, flowers in the park, memories, and dreams.
All images by Suzanne Saroff. Used with permission. For more, please visit her Instagram @hisuzann and website.
The Creative Side of Suzanna Saroff
Suzanna started taking photos when she was a child. She loved point-and-shoot and disposable cameras. When she was given a cheap digital camera, she took it everywhere. She’d use it to find other words: pebbles, blades of grass, shadows, etc. It’s an obsession that’s been around for over 25 years.
These days, her gear is a bit more complex. She’s shooting with a Fujifilm GFX 100s with a few different lenses. She’s also still got two Canon 5Ds. “These were the cameras that I really found myself through,” she tells us. “They have paint stains on them. They are messy. I love them.” To Suzanna, the best camera is one that she technically knows so well that when she’s in the zone, it becomes an extension of her.
Suzanna has a creative side in her images that embrace beauty, color, and detail in ways that some might find both jarring and appealing. Sometimes her images look like other things found in nature. At other times, they seem like playful ideas on food that we haven’t seen. And in many situations, they also look like beautiful paintings.
The Inspiration
Part of Suzanna’s inspiration came from her background: she studied biology and art history in college. It wasn’t easy for her though as she’s both dyslexic and bad at remembering names. But she found that art and science have a ton of overlaps. So when she goes about making photos, she tries to keep an open and curious mind.
I now use my photography to study how I experience the world, explore my emotions, and, as a byproduct, communicate them.
Suzanna Saroff
Of course, Suzanna noticed that she has patterns in her own work. In the same way that we’re inspired by little things like slivers of light in the office, she is delighted by everything around her. “Sometimes, in my studio in Brooklyn, light bounces off windows from buildings a mile away, and for 30 seconds, my studio is bathed in this gorgeous pink-orange light that feels like a dream,” she tells us. “I love that right now, and I always feel so happy and calm when I catch that moment. I also think about what the light is like for the people on the other side of it – the ones behind the windows that it bounces off of – for them, it’s direct sunlight pouring in. I imagine them closing their blinds or maybe feeling overwhelmed by it.” What’s more, Suzanna’s memories are bathed in light and color — and she specifically references that when she thinks back to conversations or experiences, she remembers the light. In fact, she thinks that that’s how she learned to light.
This process is holistically wonderful and it helped her connect her artistic and technical mindset. “Little details like how the light wrapped around the skin of who I was with or how it hit someone’s eyes or illuminated the food on the table,” she tells us. “I think that I have learned to light from my memories and how things feel.”
Thoughts on AI Imagery
While Suzanna thinks that AI can be fascinating, it’s the opposite approach to her practice. Specifically, she tells us that she needs to struggle to get her photos, and that she’s in love with that. “It’s therapeutic, cathartic, it’s messy,” Suzanna tells us. “By the end of creating a good photo, one that makes me feel something- solve something in my brain- my camera is sticky, and the drop cloth below my set has done its work.” Of course, it’s not always a struggle for her. When she’s in a flow, she gets the image she wants in a few minutes and then edits. It’s also different for commercial work where there is a shot list. She calls them *poof* photos — and is so satisfied by them because there is somewhat of a formula. Those moments would never have happened with out her struggle to begin with, however.
“It’s about the mess, the discovery, the rawness,” she tells us. “I’m sculpting with my hands and light. I’m using the camera as my medium to capture that moment of clarity or relief.” To her, AI would take that all away, and for her – the magic, the relief, the energy would not be there.
AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT
The Phoblographer works with human photographers to verify that they’ve actually created their work through shoots. These are done by providing us assets such as BTS captures, screenshots of post-production, extra photos from the shoot, etc. We do this to help our readers realize that this is authentically human work. Here’s what this photographer provided for us.