One of my Mentors

I just seem to get a lot of emails from other photographers asking me who my inspiration is.

I wrote about it back in June about one of my earliest mentors. Clay Blackmore.

I have a lot of them, but one in particular is Sarah Silver. All my mentors seem to have few things in common, they have Formal education, they are perfectionists and they work very very hard at what they do.

They have degrees and awards and are at the top of their fields. Many of them have been published in magazines time and time again. Some come from the background of wedding photography, some come from Fashion, some come from even Commercial work, shooting for major corporations.

But they all have those 3 things in common, Formal education, perfectionists and accolades galore.

My father taught me to be the best at what you do and all my mentors are.

Let me tell you a little about Sarah. I first found out about her while shopping in Neiman Marcus. Her images were hanging in the store and had to be about 10 feet tall! the models looked life size. I get the Neiman Marcus catalog and a lot of the clothing images are hers. She also shoots fashion for Bloomindales and lots of other stores too.

I think she has influenced me in the way I shoot high school Senior girls.

Sarah used to help her grandfather in his studio darkroom. She Studied both classical and modern dance from a very young age. After completing her first degree in Middle East studies from Vassar College, she found that her true calling was to combine both of her passions: photography and movement. She applied for graduate studies in photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

While finishing her Master’s Degree in Photography, Sarah was chosen to shoot for Surface Magazine’s Avant Guardian issue. This fashion shoot marked the true beginning of Sarah’s professional career as a photographer.

Using dancers as models in high fashion, Sarah’s style gelled. Next, Sarah shot her graduate thesis, two fashion stories, using the modern dance group Stephen Petronio Dance in clothing by Prada and Imitation of Christ. These photographs have since appeared in several magazines including PDN/PIX, Italian Vogue, Elle and Time Out New York.

It was while Sarah was planning her thesis that she recognized the importance of technology in her work. She adopted a completely digital workflow in March of 2001 and has been shooting with a medium format digital back ever since.

For the 2003 year Sarah was chosen to join twelve photographers (legends Joyce Tenneson and Patrick Demarchelier are included in that list) as a Hasselblad Master.

To see Sarah in action, check out this short video. I think shes great and I share a lot of her philosophies. http://www.photoworkshop.com/moab/index