Sarah Martin

Sarah Martin’s work explores the deceptive nature of memory and the way photographs can act as trigger points. Through her current two bodies of work; Glamour and Vintage ViewPoint, Martin explores the way personal and collective memories can meld together and be manipulated.

Martin was highly influenced by Walter Benjamin’s infamous essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction “ which challenges notions of reproduction; and how photography captures a moment yet strips away its original context. He argues, “reproductions are lacking one element: presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be”.

Through her application of painted layers, Martin creates a new moment for the photograph; giving it a place, both past and present. Martin appropriates images from the past, then jolts the viewer back to the present; leaving the viewer hovering somewhere in between. In capturing moments, imagined or real, Martin continues to explore and manipulate the powerful yet fragile nature of memory' .

Sarah Martin lives and works near Toronto, Canada. She studied Fine Artsat York University and has shown her work nationally and internationally.