Erin: What are you curious about?
Sara Lynn: Everything, but for extremely varied lengths of time.
Erin: Describe your art and describe your process.
Sara Lynn: My photography involves exposing architectural patterns using light and various cameras and formats to distort or enhance an otherwise familiar image. My process is to put myself in new environments and to not over-think things.
Erin: How did you get into photography and what drives you to continue to do it?
Sara Lynn: I began taking photography classes as teenager. The process of taking photos and exploring various landscapes. To do so has always been the most calming yet invigorating thing I do.
Erin: You followed an education and profession in medicine. How does your medical background affect your view through the lens?
Sara Lynn: Medicine requires an attention to detail and also an ability to note when something has strayed from its normal progression and these skills, whether learned or innate, certainly apply to photography and my work.
Erin: Tell us what inspired your string theory work (which we love)!
Sara Lynn: I started adding textile elements to my photographs as a way to distort and further personalize digital photographs, which due to the nature of the digital process leaves little room for pleasant surprises or creativity.
Erin: You shoot in both film and digital. How do you choose what works best for each subject?
Sara Lynn: I would say my subject stays the same, but depending on what I plan on doing with the photos later on depends on which camera I chose. When heading out with the purpose of taking photographs, I always have at least two cameras on hand.
Erin: I know that music is important to you and your work. What are you currently listening to that inspires you?
Sara Lynn: I am currently listening to Phantogram, Son Lux, Lizzo, and Star Slinger with some older Cults and classic Beastie Boys thrown in.
Erin: We did a photo shoot with you in Fort Greene park, tell us about your connection to it.
Sara Lynn: This park is beautiful through out all the seasons and it is one of my favorite places in Brooklyn. Two summers ago, I surprised my wife by proposing to her right here by the monument. I planned it so one of our usual evening walks led to a three-piece band of my friends performing Stevie Wonder’s “For Once in My Life”. We danced through the song and when it ended I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. Strangers in the park congratulated us as we walked back to a surprise engagement party up on our rooftop.
Erin: You are originally from the Midwest. Seeing as Brooklyn is one of your favorite subjects, what is it that turns you on about this city in particular?
Sara Lynn: Brooklyn seems to possess the ability to hold onto some of the charms of its past yet is forever changing and rebuilding itself. Although the change is often not always good or an improvement in my eyes, it does allow for me to constantly have a new environment to explore and photograph.
Erin: What’s next?
Sara Lynn: I have plans to continue my string theory pieces, but move from geometric patterns to anatomical designs and eventually will include portraits as well.
Erin: If you had the opportunity to shoot anyone (dead or alive) who would it be and what would it look like?
Sara Lynn: Frida Kahlo and it would be amazing, simply because Frida is in it.
Erin: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given and by whom?
Sara Lynn: My grandmother often said that happiness commonly comes from hard work and I think that is something my generation often overlooks. Also on a serious side note, we should be better about writing down the things that wise old men and women tell us, because I can barely recall any pieces of her advice.
