Sarah Szwajkos
Formal Entry with Double Staircase, Cariad, Northpoint, ME
“My career as an architectural and interior photographer was born through a personal inquiry, as I intuitively sought, through my camera’s lens, to understand how we make a place our home. What we choose to have around us, and how we arrange those objects within our private space, can reveal much about us... but not everything.
Photographing homes, frequently with the purpose of enticing you to imagine that this house could be your home, your perfect home, I’m often tasked with erasing evidence of the current occupants and the ephemera of everyday life. In today’s world, don’t we all need to be reminded: life isn’t perfect. Perfection is an illusion created by crews on photo shoots, and with digital editing. (If I had a nickel for every time I’m asked, ‘You can just Photoshop that, right?’...)
Instead, I invite you to delight in the natural coil of a lamp’s cord; the tracks we leave on our carpets; wires that enter our houses from outside, penetrate our walls, and allow us to connect with others across the globe at the flick of a switch, at the mere touch of a button – testaments to our activity, the history of life lived, revealed on the walls that frame our lives.” - Sarah Szwajkos
Education
BA, Smith College, Northampton, MA
Universita di Firenze, Florence, Italy
The Leys School, Cambridge, England
Grants & Awards
2017 - Individual Artist’s Project Grant, Maine Arts Commission, Augusta, ME
2010 - Review Santa Fe, 100 Juried Portfolio Review, Center, Santa Fe, NM
2009 - Good Idea Grant, Maine Arts Commission, Augusta, ME
2008 - First Place, Color Photography - Maine Photography Show, Boothbay Railway Museum, Boothbay, ME
2007 - Honorable Mention - Hey, Hot Shot!, Jen Beckman Gallery, New York, NY
1997 - Janet Mitchell Blumberg Fellowship, Smith College, Northampton, MA
Collections
Maritime Rare Books Room, Nelson Library, Smith College, Northampton, MA
Office for Institutional Diversity, Smith College, Northampton, MA
Selected Exhibitions
2019 - Maine Viewpoints: Contemporary Photographs & Paintings, Thos. Moser Gallery, Freeport, ME
2018 - Summer Stable Show, Maine Farmland Trust Gallery, Belfast, ME
2017 - We Might Climb a Tree, At Least, Maine Museum of Photographic Arts, USM Glickman Library, Portland, ME
Interiors, Waterfall Arts, Belfast, ME
The Inside View, Maine Farmland Trust Gallery, Belfast, ME2016 - New Color Message, 555 Gallery, Boston, MA
Wild Things, Maine Farmland Trust Gallery, Belfast, ME2015 - Inside/Out, PhoPa Gallery, Portland, ME, Maine Media Workshops Gallery, Rockport, ME
Personal Space, Primo, Rockland, ME
