VANTAG galeria: EXPLORING YOUR SEXIEST SUMMER MEMORIES

Thursday, April 13, 2017

EXPLORING YOUR SEXIEST SUMMER MEMORIES

After featuring Sarah Bahbah’s viral Sex & Takeout series in 2015, we thought it was time to check in with her. It just so happens, she’s an Instagram icon posting some of the most powerful, shareable works, and, as her bio rightly explains, you’ve probably seen her art reposted on someone else’s account. Her page @sarahbahbah is an explosion of moody Californian colours, with episodic photo-stories subtitled as quasi-narratives evoking sarcastic sass to profound mantras, as though they were screenshotted from an empowered teen movie.

Having moved from Melbourne to LA last year, her sunny yet satirical aesthetic has translated perfectly; from the saturated Summer Without a Pool series, to the most recent seductive For Arabella, Sarah Bahbah’s work is a must-see, her Insta a must-follow. As the artist herself previously declared, “transparency in our words and actions, is the future of emotional freedom, and transparency in communication is what we need to strive for on a daily basis”, and many, like the characters of the series, have found freedom in her photography. Check out our faves from the series and our catch up with her below…

The stories you create are both relatable and intimate, would you say there are certain experiences or influences which you bring to what you create?

Every piece I create is influenced by my own experiences and, weirdly, intuition. Sometimes I don’t know why I’m creating, I just know I have to create it, then I dream ideas more often than not; other times I’m creating as a way of healing – the things I wish I said or did, or the things I could have done if I went a certain direction in an experience. Most importantly, I create based on emotion – we as humans all have the same emotions in common, which naturally allows my work to be universally relatable.

Did you find moving to LA from Australia changed your style of photography or of what you wanted to shoot?

I don’t feel my style has evolved too much since the move, but my mentality has. I guess LA has made my works more honest and real in both writing and shooting – because I struggle to find connections that are.

All your series’ focus on female friendships and sexuality to some extent, what do you hope they say about this in the current political climate?

It’s important for me to communicate a sense of female empowerment in my work. I want to influence viewers, particularly female, to look at the pieces and feel a sense of freedom and voice. I want them to feel as though they shouldn’t be ashamed to speak how they feel openly. I am a firm believer in doing, saying, and wearing what you want. Transparency in our words and actions, is the future to emotional freedom.

Your subtitled shoots often act as screenshots from short films, have you ever thought about going into that industry or making your shoots into videos?

Creatively, it would probably defeat the purpose of this series: I create the works in this way as I want to challenge the viewers to draw and create their own conclusions in between each frame. I wanted to challenge the Instagram platform by creating a body of images that tell a quasi-narrative, but could also tell a story as stand-alone pieces. However, commercially I have directed in the past, and have plans to continue directing films.