Welcome to the Slices of Time Street Photography podcast. Today, I’m joined by Sarah Plummer, a street photographer from England. I liked her work because it’s very warm and feels like it would be personal to the subject.
Follow Sarah Plummer:
- Website: https://www.sarahplummerphotography.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahplummer._
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You can follow me on several social media for updates about the episodes:
- BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/fredpaulussen.bsky.social
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fredpaulussen/
- My website: www.fredericpaulussen.be
Timestamps of this episode with Sarah Plummer
- 00:00 Introduction to Sarah Plummer and Her Photography Journey
- 02:56 The Intersection of Street and Wedding Photography
- 05:55 Finding Inspiration and Personal Style in Photography
- 09:05 The Transition from Smartphone to Camera
- 11:58 The Benefits of Group Photography Outings
- 15:02 Building Community Through Photography
- 16:41 The Meditative Process of Analog Photography
- 21:05 Exploring Cultural Events Through Photography
- 24:01 Approaching Subjects for Portraits in Street Photography
- 25:45 Capturing the Seaside: A Photographer’s Perspective
- 28:03 The Art of Zines: Documenting Personal Journeys
- 30:54 Education and Influence: The Path to Photography
- 33:25 Seeing the World: The Photographer’s Eye
- 34:49 Editing: The Creative Process Behind the Lens
- 36:39 Exploring New Places: The Thrill of Street Photography
- 39:41 Traveling with Purpose: Street Photography Adventures
- 40:44 Finding Inspiration: The Importance of Variety
- 42:38 Exhausting a Scene: The Hunt for the Perfect Shot
- 46:05 Seasons of Photography: Finding New Perspectives
Thank you for listening to this conversation with Hugo. Don’t forget to subscribe to be updated about upcoming episodes. Feel free to reach out via social media if you have any questions or ideas you’d like to share.
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Podcast Transcript
Frederic Paulussen (00:01)
So, welcome to the Slice of Time street photography podcast, ⁓ episode 19 normally already. So today I’m joined by Sarah Plummer, a street photographer from England, also a wedding photographer I understood. And I like to work because it’s very warm and it feels like it would be very personal to the subject, which is logical regarding the… ⁓
wedding photography of course, but it also feels a way for street photography. So maybe Sarah, could introduce yourself for a second.
Sarah (00:31)
Yeah,
sure. Thank you for having me. I’m Sarah.
I’ve always had an interest in photography and kind of dipped in and out of it a little bit since my school days. More recently it kind of came to the forefront again after lockdown. I think I’d been poorly with Covid myself and then on the first day that I was able to go outside again I started noticing things more and
found myself just taking photos of really mundane things on my phone. Sun was out, things just looked really nice. And I started doing that initially. And then before long decided it was time to get myself a little camera, something that I could keep with me all the time. Because I was starting to, I felt I was starting to notice things more and see things in a different way. And I wanted to have something with me that I could.
not necessarily planned to go out and take photographs but if I saw something I was able to capture it. So I bought myself a little Fuji and that’s where it all kind of began really and then just by coincidence met a couple of other people through Instagram and one of them was into street photography and had been watching a lot of YouTube videos and kind of was sharing stuff with me which I’d always been.
quite fascinated by people and people watching. I’ve worked with lots of people over the years and I kind of understand that everyone has a story and you can’t necessarily judge people by your first impressions and I find it fascinating kind of imagining what someone’s story is and then kind of became more focused on
observing little interactions or little scenes that might play out and in my imagination, you know, coming up with what it might be or then having these feelings, I start getting like feelings and for me photography is as much about the feeling that a picture gives you and it’s obviously it’s not going be the same for each person that sees it. One person might feel something totally different to the next person and that’s really nice too.
that yeah, for me a photograph is about capturing a feeling or a moment in time. And I always said, never want to do wedding photography, it’s too stressful, too much pressure. But actually this same friend who got me into street photography, I’ll shoot weddings with him. And it’s really nice, it’s lovely. And we just feed off each other. it is, for me it’s about…
telling somebody’s story in their way when you’re working for somebody else and trying to make someone else feel what they’re feeling, if that makes sense. ⁓ But yeah, the street photography and the wedding photography, when I’m shooting a wedding, I feel like I am shooting street photography, but it’s just with people that are happy for me to be doing it. I don’t need to make myself invisible or…
Frederic Paulussen (03:30)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sarah (03:53)
I know I’ve worried about things becoming too contrived and things being less candid because people are encouraged just to be themselves and they don’t mind having a camera in their face. So I think both kind of have helped me go further with the other one, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, it does. And I’ll go through phases of really, really wanting to do street stuff. And then I’ll perhaps have a step away and I’ll want to do more.
Frederic Paulussen (04:03)
No, yeah.
They feed into each other. Yeah. It makes sense. Yeah.
Sarah (04:22)
like landscapes or travel stuff and it’s nice how it’s so varied and you can dip in and out and it just kind of naturally grows in whichever direction and I’m quite happy to do that. I don’t feel anymore like I need to have a certain niche or a certain style and I think just letting it go wherever it feels good gets the best results. Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (04:46)
Yeah, I can imagine.
So there’s already a lot of directions I want to go in with that short introduction you just had. So maybe first of all, let’s start with… So you went out with your smartphone at first and then ⁓ you met up with the friends who got you into street photography. Would you have considered yourself a street photographer before?
Sarah (05:03)
Mm-hmm.
Frederic Paulussen (05:16)
before that moment because like did you did you already know about street photography or no?
Sarah (05:19)
No, I
didn’t really know what street photography was.
Frederic Paulussen (05:24)
because you were doing it in my…
Sarah (05:26)
⁓ yeah,
yeah, no I really didn’t know anything about it and then quite quickly started following more and more people that were doing it online. Not necessarily watching so many videos but yeah, finding that a lot of my stuff fell into that category and trying not to let myself
Frederic Paulussen (05:51)
Yeah.
Sarah (05:55)
have those constrictions of what some people think street photography has to be and what it can’t be. Still trying to photograph what appealed to me, I think was important.
Frederic Paulussen (06:07)
Yeah and do you have like certain ways to to make sure that you just keep photographing what what sparks your eye and not necessarily what’s seen as street photography?
Sarah (06:17)
Yeah, think it
just just instincts really, as simple as that. I think if I see something, ⁓ I won’t go out and plan what I’m going to take photos of. I know some people find it helpful to set themselves like a little brief almost like today I’m going to look for hand gestures or I’m going to look for a certain colour or I’m going to look, yeah, but I’ve tried that and
Frederic Paulussen (06:22)
Okay.
Sarah (06:47)
Yeah, sometimes it naturally happens, but I think it’s just naturally what I’m drawn to. Yeah, it’s following my instincts.
Frederic Paulussen (06:57)
Okay,
yeah and so for like, is there inspiration or do you look at other photographers for inspiration or is it really all just natural for you just how it goes?
Sarah (07:09)
I think other
people’s work subconsciously definitely infiltrates me and it comes out but it’s not something that I’m consciously doing thinking I want to make a photo like what they’ve made I think all these things we absorb and subconsciously it’s in there so that’s something you might not have considered before or then noticed that I might not have before.
Frederic Paulussen (07:17)
Yeah.
Sarah (07:38)
I try and keep it quite natural, I think, and just, yeah, not be too bogged down by what’s been done before or equally think, I can’t do that because that’s been done before. It’s no, it’s art and everyone sees it and interprets it differently and has their own representation of it. So that’s how,
Frederic Paulussen (07:40)
Yeah. ⁓
Yeah.
Exactly, street
photography as well, like you can maybe see a similar moment, but it’s still going to be totally different than what someone else saw.
Sarah (08:08)
Absolutely, yeah. mean, if I go out
with other people, quite often you’ll see the same thing and one of us will back off as if to say, no, it’s okay, you’ve seen it first. But it really doesn’t bother me if someone else is photographing what I’ve seen because nine times out of 10, the final image is totally different. And you can normally tell whose is whose anyway. Yeah, it doesn’t bother me. And I have had a few messages recently.
Frederic Paulussen (08:23)
Mm.
Yeah, that’s true.
Sarah (08:40)
asking how I shoot. People perhaps like the colours that I use and they’ll say, do you shoot straight out of camera or are you using presets or what are you doing? It’s not that I’m trying to copy your work or anything and people get quite defensive, they have to defend themselves when they’re asking for advice. I don’t have a problem with it, I’m quite happy to share with how I’m doing it if it’s helping somebody else then.
Frederic Paulussen (09:05)
Exactly,
Sarah (09:06)
That’s
fine, it’s not going to be the same as mine because equally when I started out I would look at certain people’s work and think I wonder how they’ve done that, what camera are they using or how are they doing this. So yeah, really doesn’t bother me. I’ll take it as a compliment and happy to share.
Frederic Paulussen (09:22)
Yeah, exactly. Because you mentioned you would go out with people to photograph, before you go into that, you already mentioned you were curious to the gear from other people as well. And because you mentioned at the start that you first went out using your smartphone, did you find like a…
like the step from a smartphone to a camera, did you find it difficult to, well technically it’s different, but also there are in my opinion maybe more options, ⁓ so was it a struggle or?
Sarah (09:56)
Yeah, yeah
it did and I’m the least technical person ever. Even the cameras that I have now, I don’t know everything that they do. I don’t, you know, I hear people talking about gear and lenses and does it have this or that? I don’t know. It’s not about that for me. It’s about what’s happening out there that’s more interesting to me than what’s capturing it.
Frederic Paulussen (10:22)
Yeah.
Sarah (10:23)
But yeah, when I first got my camera I didn’t know my way around. I didn’t know about depth of field. I knew kind of how I wanted it to look, but I really didn’t know how to go about it. It was very much trial and error. Yeah. So yeah, it was a challenge.
Frederic Paulussen (10:39)
Okay, yeah, yeah,
because for me photography is like halfway technology or science and halfway to art and you have people that go very hard in either direction so that’s fine of course but just because you mentioned you were starting with a smartphone I wondered because it’s very different to photograph with a smartphone and with camera to me.
Sarah (10:49)
Yes. Yes.
Frederic Paulussen (11:06)
So yeah, I was wondering if that caused any issues. Yeah, I can imagine. And do you sometimes still resort to the smartphone?
Sarah (11:07)
Yes, yes, there definitely was challenge and still is sometimes.
I try not to, my smartphone is very old, it’s really not very good at all. No, I would rather probably not take the phone and let it go than use a smartphone now.
Frederic Paulussen (11:18)
Okay.
Okay.
Do you have
like, I have it sometimes that I see a moment and I have my smartphone or my my camera with me but I just let it slide for some reason and then like for a while I regret not taking the photo. Do you have it then still or? Okay. Okay.
Sarah (11:41)
Hmm.
Yes, I’ve got a few stories like that, yeah. So I’d
been up to visit my daughter at University Leeds quite a few years ago and I’ve got my camera with me but it was in my bag. Yeah and walking down the road and there were some people doing like a pub crawl in fancy dress and all of a sudden this person dressed as a leprechaun just did a full roll in the middle of the road. I was like why did I not have my
Frederic Paulussen (11:58)
Classic, yeah.
Sarah (12:13)
were in my hand, it was in my bag and it was just, yeah, frustrating. Yeah, never gonna get that again.
Frederic Paulussen (12:17)
That’s amazing, yeah. Yeah, I can imagine.
Probably not, no. That’s a shame, So ⁓ you mentioned going out with other people. Is that something you do often? Is it more of a group thing for you or?
Sarah (12:32)
Yeah, I
do like going out with other people. I think if I go out on my own, I’m probably more focused and I’m more likely to see things. But when I go out with other people, it almost gives me more confidence sometimes to go in for the shot and not hesitate. Maybe if I was on my own, I’d kind of circle in there and think, oh, I don’t know.
Frederic Paulussen (12:58)
That’s
definitely true. yeah, because I most street photographers up to now that I interview were like they like to go out alone because they’re as you said more focused and you can can really like do your thing like if you want to stay back somewhere or wait for two hours for someone to walk by that’s possible. But as you just mentioned, like you have the confidence more in a group. Like if you do a workshop or you go out with friends, it is easier to get a bit closer or
Sarah (13:24)
Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (13:28)
⁓ Yeah, so yeah, think for especially for beginner photographers maybe it’s a good way or if you’re just training to get closer to people I think it’s a good way to maybe go ⁓ with friends so that’s a very interesting that you mentioned. ⁓
Sarah (13:29)
Yeah, there’s less hesitation, I think, for me. Yeah.
Mm.
Yeah.
Yeah,
yeah, I do enjoy going out with other people and actually photography has been really good to make connections with other people. It’s just been really nice to become friends with like-minded people that have similar visions and interests and yeah, I find that really valuable as much as anything else.
Frederic Paulussen (14:05)
Yeah.
Yeah, and was it mostly via Instagram or via a local… Okay. ⁓
Sarah (14:13)
Yeah, yeah, mainly. Yeah,
yeah, mainly Instagram. Yeah, I know people have a few complaints about Instagram and it’s not what it was, but I genuinely built up some lovely connections with people and, you know, social media is social, isn’t it? And I use it as a social platform to talk to people, you know, I think sometimes if you’re just going to go on and post and scroll and not interact with anybody then…
Frederic Paulussen (14:35)
Yeah.
Sarah (14:42)
Yeah, that’s what some people do, but for me I really like the whole show and interacting and yeah, giving credit to other people when they’ve inspired you and it’s really nice.
Frederic Paulussen (14:55)
Yeah, I agree with the statement. I’m falling out of love with Instagram again, but at same time it’s just a tool. You have to use it in your advantage. You have to see how it can benefit you and then go for it. And it’s great to make connections, as you said. ⁓ So because you…
Sarah (15:02)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (15:14)
I saw you lived in a small town in it’s called Grantham, I understood. So is there a big ⁓ photography community there or do you travel for those walks?
Sarah (15:18)
That’s right, yeah.
Not
really, no not really. The nearest places are probably Lincoln and Nottingham. So Lincoln there is a photo lab that’s not long open there that does all my film developing and stuff and they’ll put on photo walks and things like that and that’s a nice little community feeling. Again the connections through Instagram, everybody sees each other’s shares and links back to that place which is really nice.
and Nottingham as well, there’s quite a big photo community there. I think they’re just looking at opening up a new space there at the moment with dark room facilities and everything which is something I’d like to do some more of.
Frederic Paulussen (16:09)
That’s cool, yeah. So you
do a lot of analog stuff or?
Sarah (16:13)
I’ve started
again in the last year, so when I was at school I did a little bit. I think when I was at secondary school one of my first lessons was making a pinhole camera and it just blew my mind how you could have these ghosty images ⁓ appear on this paper. I absolutely loved it, I couldn’t get enough of it. And then at college I did a little bit as well.
Frederic Paulussen (16:32)
Yeah.
Sarah (16:41)
⁓ I actually worked in a camera shop when I was in my early twenties. All these things at the time never seemed significant, but looking back now, they’ve all kind of brought me to where I am. I look back now and think, yeah, that was something that was like waiting to come out of me. Yeah, and the dark room is just lovely. Shooting film, totally, it’s like meditation. just…
Frederic Paulussen (16:55)
Yeah.
That’s very nice.
Sarah (17:08)
focuses your mind even more, slows you right down and everything counts for a lot more. Whereas when you’re shooting digital, think it is a little bit, it becomes a little bit disposable if you like. It doesn’t really matter because you can take as many shots as you like really. don’t know if you’d get rid, but film you have to make it count. So you’re a lot more selective with what you’re pressing the button on. And then yeah, the whole anticipation is,
Frederic Paulussen (17:25)
True, yeah.
Sarah (17:37)
great so yeah I think think saying myself sometimes I’ll now go out and say right I’m only going to shoot film today or I’m going to really try and only shoot film just to focus my mind as much as anything because it’s not always about coming home with the best photo it’s about learning and it’s about enjoying the process yeah because I mean yeah you don’t always come back with you know a really good image and
you can quite quickly become disheartened if that’s what your aim is.
Frederic Paulussen (18:09)
Yeah, I mean it happens and I always beat myself upwards and then I do tell myself it’s okay, it’s okay, but it’s yeah, it’s annoying.
Sarah (18:11)
Yeah, yeah it does.
Yeah, and I
don’t want to fall out of love with it. I’ve found something that means something to me and it’s always available to me if I need it. I don’t want it to become ⁓ something that makes me feel bad.
Frederic Paulussen (18:33)
No, yeah, that makes total sense. so because it feels that you do analog more for ⁓ the process rather than the end product. a lot of people are doing analog photography because they feel it’s more authentic, it’s better colors, better whatever. But for you, it’s more about the slowing down process. Okay, that’s cool. Yeah. And do you do the development yourself as well? Or you’re going to start it? Yeah.
Sarah (18:44)
Mm-hmm. Yes.
Yeah.
I haven’t yet, I
have been in the darkroom, I’ve done a little bit of printing in the darkroom. I’ve not developed my own negs yet, well not since I was at college. It’s something I’ve thought about but yeah, there’s such good places that do it locally that I can’t, you know, financially, I’ll let them do it for now.
Frederic Paulussen (19:22)
yeah it’s also
easier for me it’s a lot of like i remember doing it in school it was so much stress to do my negatives because if you fail then it’s it’s it’s gone so ⁓ yeah that’s why that’s why i’m more of digital person but that’s that’s to each their own so i also noticed on your instagram that you did a big ⁓ series on the it’s called Purim
Sarah (19:28)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
yes.
Frederic Paulussen (19:49)
So it’s,
well, first of all, I didn’t know there was a big Jewish community in the UK. I know here in Antwerp, we have a lot of them as well. ⁓ But I didn’t know that there were that much in the UK. Is it something like, are you involved in the community because they…
Sarah (20:00)
Yeah.
It was
something that I had seen other photographers photograph in the past and I’d actually reached out to one of them and asked the question, you know, what is this event and how do you become a part of it? And then they’d sort of sent me the following year, I’m going down, if you want to come this is where you need to be. So me and another friend got the train down to London and it was amazing. It was absolutely amazing.
there was just so much going on and so different to anything that I’d seen before. Yeah, so in London there’s an area called Stamford Hill, so they have a really large Jewish community there. And as far as I understand it, I think it’s over two or three days and the whole community come together.
Frederic Paulussen (20:44)
Because it’s ⁓ a big event, like ⁓ thousands of people or…
Sarah (21:05)
and celebrate it. So the young boys will kind of get dressed up in their best gear and all these amazing hats. Everyone’s house just seems to be open and everyone’s in and out of each of these houses bringing food and just moving through the streets and it’s very kind of, yeah, it’s just the whole streets come alive, there’s music. Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (21:34)
So there’s a lot happening but it’s not like an event where there’s a stage and it’s not really like a centralized event.
Sarah (21:41)
No, no, yeah, yeah,
it’s just, I think it’s just like a tradition, going to other people’s houses, sharing food and helping people that need help. But some of the costumes, the children get really dressed up and they seem to, each family from what I can gather, dress in the same theme. So it’s really nice to see these young children and their…
it just feels totally safe that they’re just walking the streets and going in their neighbours houses and the older ones are dressed the same as the little ones and they’re all holding hands and taking care of each other and grouped together you can just kind of see them kind of migrating through these streets it’s really nice yeah
Frederic Paulussen (22:19)
Yeah. Okay.
And so because it’s kind of similar to the wedding perhaps that it’s an event so it’s more easy to approach people or…
Sarah (22:29)
Yeah, yeah
so I was a little bit apprehensive as to whether people would want like an outsider if you like coming in and what were my motives but and that’s the other thing I think being a woman it does make it probably sometimes easier for me people don’t see me as a threat or so but honestly that I was with other people as well and people couldn’t have been more welcoming people were asking us to take photos of them.
Frederic Paulussen (22:36)
Yeah.
Sarah (22:57)
And then I always text someone’s email and say, well, I’ll send it to you. Yeah, it lovely. It was really nice, really welcoming.
Frederic Paulussen (23:02)
Yeah.
That’s nice. Yeah, I started
making, I have like little cards with just my email address and my Instagram to just hand out to people because it’s easier than, yeah, and then you say, and because recently as well, was ⁓ at a protest and so I made photos and they were like, ⁓ can we get the pictures? And I was like, yeah, sure. But the internet was like overrun because there was like too many people in one area. So I couldn’t type in my Instagram name. So I just like, yeah.
Sarah (23:13)
Yes. Yeah, get your phone open.
Frederic Paulussen (23:36)
I have a card because it’s easier than looking up my Instagram. ⁓ But so you mentioned earlier that it’s ⁓ for you not always as easy to approach people in the streets, but I’ve seen a lot of photos, well, all of your photos are more or less human oriented, well, most photos. And you do seem to get close in my opinion. So.
Sarah (23:38)
Yeah, that’s a idea.
Yeah.
Yeah,
yeah, it’s, I think it’s kind of come with, with practice. I don’t always feel comfortable. And I am getting better at asking people for portraits sometimes as well. I’d like to do more of that, but I find myself when I, when I ask someone for a portrait, I get really flustered and I feel really rushed and I’ll often, I’ll get my settings wrong or afterwards I’ll go away. think it’s
That would have been so much better if I just slowed down and thought about where I was positioning them. Because people kind of naturally, you say, can I take a photo and they’ll do a silly pose or they’ll smile. It’s that one, they don’t smile. Just like, I want you as you were when I first saw you. Yeah, I need to practice in kind of that, I think. Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (24:33)
Hmm.
Yeah. But yeah.
I think
it’s okay to have crappy photos and just try it out. But yeah, it sucks if you ask someone for their time and then it’s a… Okay.
Sarah (24:57)
Yeah.
Yeah, shooting from the hip is good as well. So my camera has
like a flip out ⁓ LCD screen. So if I flip it up and I’ve got my around my neck, I can literally just be looking down and pressing down with my thumb and people kind of don’t get it. So it’s shot from kind of down here rather than in their face. They’re not. Yeah. The classic kind of I’ll just pretend you fiddling with your camera and you don’t know what you’re doing.
Frederic Paulussen (25:07)
Yeah.
Yeah, okay. Do you do that often because it
Sarah (25:30)
Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (25:31)
And do you do that often because I don’t find in your photos that it’s often framed that way.
Sarah (25:39)
Yeah, quite a lot, quite a lot. Yeah, quite often.
Frederic Paulussen (25:45)
Okay. Yeah, yeah,
it’s just, I’m just wondering. ⁓
Sarah (25:51)
Or the
other thing that really helps, so I’ve recently been to Blackpool, I’ve got lot of shots of people on the seafront and because they’ve got the big tower in the background, you can literally just walk down the street and like look past people but you’re really looking at them and people just assume you’re taking a photo of the tower, so yeah, that’s another good one. Just look behind, pretend you’re shooting something behind them. Yeah, yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (25:59)
Yeah.
That’s something what I do often as well. Like let
people walk into your frame and then they’ll even say sorry for being in the frame. Because I did have a question about it because it seemed that a lot of your photos are, well not all of your photos of course, but a lot of your photos are beachside oriented because you also have like a
Sarah (26:20)
Yes.
Yes, yes.
⁓
Frederic Paulussen (26:41)
of course in Portugal which is of course a lot of beach. So I was curious if there’s like a specific ⁓
a reason that you like to go to the beach side or is it just something that I noticed which isn’t there?
Sarah (26:59)
I think it’s
just something that subconsciously I do.
Frederic Paulussen (27:04)
Okay, yeah, maybe
it’s not there, maybe it’s just something that I know because of the last photos, but…
Sarah (27:08)
Yeah, no, think
you are right. I did a zine earlier in the year which was based around the seaside and my relationship with the seaside and other people and how it can be a place to reset and forget whatever’s going on in your daily life. People go to kind of a bit of relief or let go of themselves and…
Frederic Paulussen (27:17)
Okay.
Sarah (27:35)
Some people might just go for peace and solitude and connect to nature and other people go to you know drink or eat loads of sugary stuff and go wild on some fair rides and stuff but yeah I think I think people perhaps are a different version of themselves when they’re somewhere like that in my head. Yeah I find that quite interesting.
Frederic Paulussen (27:46)
Yeah.
Perhaps, yeah.
That’s an interesting way to look at it, yeah. And so how long did you have to photograph for the zine? Was it like just photos you already had and you decided to do something with it or? ⁓
Sarah (28:04)
The freedom to it, yeah.
It was
photographs that I’ve taken over the last four or five years. There was some in there that I took kind of back in 2020, think, when I got that first camera. There’s some film ones in there that I took and I developed in the darkroom and there was a proper good mix of stuff in there. But again, it just naturally seemed pulled together as a little project that subconsciously had built within me.
Frederic Paulussen (28:42)
Yeah.
Sarah (28:43)
and it just kind of came out as that. And it’s probably something that I’ll carry on adding to because it is somewhere that I do enjoy photographing the colours. You know on a sunny day the colours just pop and even if somewhere’s a little bit tired and run down there’s just something really nostalgic about it that I really like. It can look quite timeless I think sometimes as well.
Frederic Paulussen (29:06)
Definitely, yeah. Yeah,
I just noticed it and it’s funny. I didn’t know about the zine so it’s fun that you did a project around it already ⁓ So what what what brought you to to make a zine out of it was it’s just because you you thought like you had enough photos or
Sarah (29:13)
Yeah.
Yeah, I
think it would, I’ve started kind of a little, not collection, but I’ve started trying to buy other people’s work that they’ve produced. And I’ve bought a couple of zines from other people. And then working in the dark room and seeing my stuff in print. So a zine or a book is a nice way to present your work in print rather than have, you know, try and trawl through. ⁓
back catalog of photos and wonder which ones you want to print to put on your wall and you know it just seemed a simpler, more concise way to pull a lot of stuff together and have something physical. Yeah, I am really pleased with it. think initially I was a bit worried like I wanted it to be perfect and again if I’d hesitated and overthought it I probably still would be sequencing and sorting through stuff now but…
Frederic Paulussen (29:55)
Yeah.
Sarah (30:15)
Just don’t overthink it, just get it out there. You can make another one, can kind of see something that you can ⁓ add to over the years again, but it was just nice to get something together.
Frederic Paulussen (30:27)
Yeah, that’s cool. It’s also very cool that you had that idea of not overthinking it, because that would be probably my issue as well. Just going, trying to do to…
Sarah (30:34)
Yeah.
Yeah, the real
fear was that I would send it to the printers and then I’d go to the beach like two days later and get the best photo ever taken and I’ve not included it in the zine. That’s always going to happen, isn’t it? Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (30:50)
Yeah.
It’s
nightmare. Now that you mention it, it’s like, ⁓ no, I hope that never happens to me. But yeah, if it happens, then that’s fine. So ⁓ maybe getting back to your education, because you did photography as education or because I saw something about arts.
Sarah (30:59)
Yeah.
you
Yeah,
I did a little bit of art at college. So I studied art and design when I left school ⁓ and that was a little bit of everything. And I did go to uni for a year and I did textiles and multimedia stuff there. But I struggled to kind of financially cope. My parents were in a position to support me financially.
And so it meant that I bought myself a car with my student loan. And I used to drive to the nearest, it was about an hour and a half away, I think, to the nearest art school, Monday to Friday. And then all weekend I would work to pay for my petrol to get there. So that first year, as much as I enjoyed it, I didn’t have the student experience and it was hard going.
Frederic Paulussen (32:10)
Hmm.
Yeah, okay.
Sarah (32:13)
It was really
hard going and it’s something I look at people now, there’s a few people that I know whose children are going off to study art or to study photography and I’m like, so lucky. I do wonder if I’d done that and I’d got that technical, I don’t know if I’ve got the background of it all a bit more than what I would be doing now, I don’t know. Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (32:27)
Yeah.
Yeah, well yeah
I was gonna ask if you had any influence on your work now because often it’s they either try to shape you in an artist but in their vision of an artist I find or it’s very technical and the artistic side kind of lacks so I was wondering if you had any ⁓
Sarah (32:56)
Yeah, yeah. The artistic
side is definitely more important to me than the technical side. I think you can learn the technical side if you really need to. Sometimes the artistic side is something that naturally is within you or develops. And yeah, that’s more important to me. It’s more about expressing and
Frederic Paulussen (33:10)
Yeah, that you can learn on YouTube.
Sarah (33:25)
showing people the world how I see it because quite often people might not see these little things that are going on all around them and I find that even when I don’t have a camera, even when I’m not going out with specifically the intention of taking photographs, my radar are on and I’m seeing stuff all the time thinking that would look nice or how would I do that even if I’ve got camera with me it’s just the way you see things.
Frederic Paulussen (33:52)
Yeah,
it’s very true. started to… it probably sounds kind of crazy, but if I’m in the car when I’m driving or on my bike, I take like mental pictures. Like I see something and it’s like, okay, now I’m in the right position. I make the sounds like sometimes even audibly, especially in the car if I’m alone and no one can hear me. Just to make sure like I made that picture. So yeah, I understand what you’re trying to say.
Sarah (34:01)
Yes.
Yes. Yes.
Yeah, I get that. Yeah.
And that’s all part of the kind of learning as well, isn’t it? Even if you’re not making the picture and capturing it, you’re still learning. You’re learning to see things and you’re learning how you would do it when you do have a camera. Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (34:25)
Yeah.
True, yeah.
Very true, yeah. I was also wondering, because your photos, so I already mentioned that they’re very warm because it’s very human and personal in my opinion, but it’s also very warm colors, so actually warm. Do you do that with editing or is it more…
Sarah (34:49)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah,
quite often I’ll shoot in a JPEG so I use a Fuji and I’ll fiddle with the film simulations and the colours and the tones and all the saturation and things actually in the camera and then I’ll put it in Lightroom and I’ll, depending on…
where it is or what it is, I’ll edit each one individually. So there’s not like a general preset or anything that I use. It is dependent on each individual photo. Somehow it seems to kind of be coherent as a theme. But if you scroll through Instagram, you’ll see like I’ll have like darker, darker phases and then brighter phases and I’ll kind of switch it up a bit.
Frederic Paulussen (35:27)
Yeah.
Sarah (35:45)
kind of it does kind of change quite quickly.
Frederic Paulussen (35:48)
I think it’s quite okay.
And so do you enjoy the editing process or is it more of a…
Sarah (35:55)
I do. Yeah,
I really do. I was talking to a couple of photographer friends at the weekend and one of them saying how he really likes the editing and the other one’s like, no, I haven’t got patience for it. You know, the least amount of faffing around the better. But yeah, I really enjoy the editing side of it. I look forward to getting home and getting my iPad and…
looking at them all and maybe sometimes you might overlook a photo that you then go back to a couple of days later or week or two weeks later and you see it in a different way and you can edit it in a way that yeah makes it better.
Frederic Paulussen (36:39)
Yeah,
very true. So do you do a lot of street photography in Grantham or do you travel to to nearby cities?
Sarah (36:46)
No,
no, Grantham, don’t think would, there’s not a lot going on in Grantham. If there’s an event on, then yeah, would take my camera around. But Nottingham, Lincoln and Skegness is the nearest coast to us that I’ll go to, but London’s an hour on the train, so that’s quite easy to get down there. Yeah, yeah, it is.
Frederic Paulussen (36:56)
Okay.
Okay, that’s doable,
Sarah (37:14)
And you know, whenever we’re going out for a day, me and my husband or family, the camera’s there, so yeah. Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (37:20)
Yeah, okay,
that’s cool. Yeah, because I was wondering because you also did ⁓ several photos in, I’m forgetting it was Port, no, Lisbon and also Marrakesh, but because I was wondering it’s kind of contrasting in cities of course, also in size if you noticed the difference, but if you travel to London of course, that’s a big city, so there’s a lot of options there.
Sarah (37:31)
Lisbon.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah,
yeah, so we went to, we went to Portugal twice last year. The first trip was actually with two street photography friends and it was just for that purpose, which was lovely. That was really nice. And then I went to Marrakesh with my husband and for that one I just took my Ricoh, which is tiny, and a film camera and travelled quite light. Yeah, and then we only really had one day out.
Frederic Paulussen (37:57)
Okay.
Sarah (38:16)
in the streets in Marrakesh but yeah I’ve got quite a lot of photos because it’s just so different and when you go in somewhere new and you’re something with fresh eyes I think it does spark your inspiration and motivation to keep going and see as much of it as possible.
Frederic Paulussen (38:28)
Yeah.
Definitely.
Yeah, true. And so the travel to Lisbon with the other street photographers, it was really like a trip that you planned out with the three of you, I understood, to travel or be there and just do street photography all day. And so did you do, did you go your own way during the day and then just meet up later or was it always together or?
Sarah (38:41)
Yes. Yes.
Yes, yeah.
No, we generally,
generally we stood together. Yeah, and again, we’d get very different photos even though we were together the whole time. Yeah, different. Yeah, yeah, it was really good trip. Nice city.
Frederic Paulussen (39:06)
It’s very nice, yeah.
It’s very cool.
they’re from close by. You already knew them or? Yeah.
Sarah (39:14)
Yes, both
in Grantham, so one of them is the guy that got me into street photography. So we’ve all got kind of a connection through our hometown and through photography, which is nice. We probably never would have been friends otherwise and we’ve been on a couple of other trips since and yeah, it’s really nice.
Frederic Paulussen (39:34)
Yeah.
Yeah, you have like a wishlist for places to go now or?
Sarah (39:40)
I’d really like to go to Amalfi and I’d like to go, there’s a couple of places, I went to, I’ve been to Rome, I’ve been to Venice before but before I was really into street photography I’d like to go back there now. ⁓ I think I’d see those places differently as well. ⁓ Yeah there’s so many places, New York would be amazing.
Frederic Paulussen (40:03)
Yeah, probably,
Sarah (40:10)
And I’m not really a big city, loads of people person. I think as I’ve got older, I crave space and less people and freedom and open spaces. But to shoot somewhere like New York would be amazing. Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (40:28)
Yeah, yeah, so you, now that you mentioned the having the space and ⁓ the quietness in cities, I kind of see that in your photos as well. It’s seldom that it’s a busy photo or that it’s like you have groups of people but it’s off more of in events. There’s a lot of like individuals, yeah.
Sarah (40:44)
Yeah.
Yeah, isolated characters.
Yeah, yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (41:00)
So, yeah, now that you mentioned it, I see it in your work as well.
Sarah (41:05)
Yeah, I’ve not really thought about it like that before, but yeah, when I’m photographing people, I think I am looking for kind of cleaner scenes with just one or two people and cut everything else out and isolate them. So maybe that’s something else subconscious that I’m not aware of.
Frederic Paulussen (41:19)
Yeah.
Yeah maybe and so do you do you look more for like you have your scene and then you wait for people to pass through it or is like a moment that you spot and you just try to approach the people?
Sarah (41:30)
Yeah.
Yeah, bit of both,
I think. A little bit of both. It used to be that I’d first catch, you know, I’d see a person and I’d think they look cool. I need a picture of them and I’d wait for them to get in the right spot. But yeah, there are certain times where there’ll be a nice patch of light or, you know, something going on or a sign or some writing. think, it’d be cool if someone walked into that with something contradictory going on.
I’ll hang around for a little while and wait and see if anything happens. And you kind of go back to the same place over and over again. You find yourself thinking, you get a shot and you think, oh, I might be able to do better than that one day. I’ll keep going back. And yeah, that’s again, another way that you kind of, you learn, don’t you? And you don’t, never really settle. I think even when you get a really good shot, I’ll always look at it and think, oh, but if only that was there or that wasn’t there, or it would be better if…
Yeah, so that’s all how we all improve isn’t it though in anything.
Frederic Paulussen (42:34)
Yeah.
True, yeah, very much. And so, do you have like certain spots that you freak it more often? That you say like, okay, this is place I keep going back to. I have thousands of photos already, but I can’t stop ⁓ photographing it. Do you have those spots? You don’t have to necessarily mention them.
Sarah (42:48)
Bye. ⁓
Yeah, yeah,
yeah, maybe. There’s a staircase in London on the South Bank and it’s a yellow kind of spiral staircase. don’t know if you’ve seen it and I’ve taken a few shots there. There was one really early on and it was just a single man in a hat walking up the staircase. It’s quite a minimal kind of shot. I was really pleased with that one and we going home to that one and then…
years later I got another one which is different angle of it and there was a little girl in a yellow coat running alongside and there’s a puddle and reflection and the symmetry of the yellow staircase and the girl in the yellow coat kind of match up and so it’s the same location but the two photos are very very different and yeah yeah I like I like kind of mixing it up a little bit
Frederic Paulussen (43:51)
Yeah.
Sarah (43:52)
Exhausting
a scene. I could photograph the same thing like 20 times, 20 different ways and I’ll find myself, if I’ve got time, I will just exhaust every possibility with it until I’ve got like the best compositions that I think I can get. I won’t just say something, I think that’s cool, take a picture, move on, if I’ve got time I’ll keep going.
Frederic Paulussen (44:18)
So you really take your time around a place? Like what you would call a hunter?
Sarah (44:24)
Yeah, more, more,
yeah, less, less so people, but more so with like scenes or, you know, still objects. I’ll really take my time, think about it. People, I feel really hurried and it’s instinct, it’s just like, yeah, get it done and yeah, see what happens, hope for the best and yeah, yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (44:52)
Yeah, there’s
Sarah (44:53)
There is. There is.
Frederic Paulussen (44:54)
a lot of hoping in street photography from time to time. And so do you, because to me there’s a difference of course between the, to me London and like the classic English cities are very different. do you do…
Do you enjoy the difference or is it difficult for you or how do you look to it?
Sarah (45:21)
Yeah,
no, it is different. I like the kind of difference. Again, it’s like seeing somewhere so different is what motivates me and sparks me to think, yeah, that’s worth taking a picture of. I think being stuck in the same places, ⁓ it becomes quite hard to see things with fresh eyes, if you like. think.
having a bit of a variety, so you know going to the seaside, going to London, going somewhere else, it helps me not feel stuck and not feel bored I suppose as well, yeah you don’t want to get bored photographing the same things and you know I’m sure there’ll come a time where I’ll kind of have my fill of street photography again for a bit and then I’ll
Frederic Paulussen (45:59)
Yeah.
So you like a bit of variation, yeah. Yeah.
Sarah (46:19)
stop going to cities for a bit and I’ll be back at the seaside and then vice versa. It will go full circle.
Frederic Paulussen (46:25)
Yeah,
so do you have those, well let’s call it seasons often that you’re like, okay now I’m going to focus, well it’s maybe not intentional but it’s…
Sarah (46:37)
Yeah, it’s not
a conscious thing. Again, I’ll recognise perhaps I’ve not been out on the camera for ages or I feel the need to get out and take pictures because it makes me feel good and I really enjoy it. it’s difficult to know where to go sometimes, where to go somewhere. We’d found a really cool place just to side of Nottingham, which is an old
Frederic Paulussen (46:52)
Yeah.
Sarah (47:06)
⁓ power station that’s just been closed down and in front of it there’s an old boatyard and there’s all these abandoned boats in front of these huge cooling towers and that was amazing and I’ve been there like three times and again you could just take photos of the same thing so many times and come up with something new and different light or different seasons it looks very different and I want more places like that.
Frederic Paulussen (47:28)
Yeah. Yeah.
Sarah (47:35)
but I don’t know how to find them. Sometimes I’ll find myself thinking, right, I’ve got a day off tomorrow, where can I go? And I’ll open Google Maps and I’ll zoom out and I’ll kind of scour where I’ve been thinking, right, what would be a good direction to go in and see what you find? And sometimes it is just getting in the car and driving and pulling over as you see stuff and see where it takes you. But yeah, if I could come up with a way of having like an index of these kind of interesting.
playgrounds that we could go to. That would be good.
Frederic Paulussen (48:07)
Yeah,
it is difficult. I had a period for myself that if I saw an interesting location or photo of someone on Instagram, I would save it in a special folder. And then once every so often, if I would think of it, I would put all those places on a Google Maps pinpoint them. So I had a map, but yeah. Sometimes it’s just easier to go out or it’s more fun to just go out. Yeah.
Sarah (48:16)
Yeah. Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah, and find it. Yeah, it is more
fun. You find it unexpectedly, isn’t it? Yes, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Frederic Paulussen (48:37)
Or go with people who already know places. Depends if that’s possible of course.
So it’s getting quite late here actually. ⁓ It’s almost 10 pm now. I’m very sweaty.
Sarah (48:51)
Yeah, so yeah, you’re an hour ahead, aren’t you?
very hot by the looks of it.
Frederic Paulussen (49:01)
It’s… We had a heatwave, which it should be ending now, I think, but it’s still in the house here, so I ⁓ can’t get rid of it. All the windows were open, and there was wind, but yeah. Some rooms it’s okay, but then this room, it refused to cool down. And so I had to close the windows for the recording because it was also starting to thunder outside.
Sarah (49:15)
⁓ Once it’s in, it ain’t going out.
Frederic Paulussen (49:30)
So I didn’t want to have this interrupted by the…
Sarah (49:31)
Ugh.
Frederic Paulussen (49:36)
So yeah, so thank you Sarah for your amazing ⁓ time and your insights. If anyone wants to follow Sarah, of course, her links will be in the description to her website and to her Instagram. Make sure to follow her fantastic work, of course. Also make sure to follow the podcast on your favorite platform. Doesn’t really matter which platform that is. Or follow me for any updates. And again, thank you Sarah for your time.
Sarah (49:37)
Cool.
Thanks so much for having me. It’s been really good to talk to you.
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