Over the past year, I have gratefully connected with Sarah England, one of Vancouver’s most original photographers and inspirations for individual creative direction. For almost three years I had been connecting with her dad at my previous restaurant job, he told me his daughter was an adventurous creative traveling the world. I was obliviously following her work on Instagram, not making the association, when her dad said her name one day. That’s also when I recognized portraiture model and actress that was an actor in the local music group IMUR‘s feature music video, FFL. Besides this coincidence, she has traveled multiple continents, journaled her personal and professional experiences, highlighting special moments in life, orchestrating stories with witchy characters and natural scene, but also the candidly freeing beauty that every day awaits.
England’s vision became a mystical outlet into my life, the following gallery is an emotional glimpse into my life which seems to be full of constant change and embracing my dark sides. So I finally asked her some of my inkling questions of how Sarah and this dark, beautiful, romantically surfacing creation came into form before her lens:
Hi Sarah! What did you see today?
Today I was lucky enough to witness my dog enjoying the beautiful sun that Vancouver has been offering us these days. I sprayed her with a hose and watched her run around like a wet rat.
Your portfolio is nothing short of crazy amazing. So many elements and inspiration, yet a consistent look to your style of shooting and editing. Where did your earliest inspiration come from? What inspired you to take pictures?
Well let me start off by saying thank you for such a lovely compliment. I would say that my earliest inspiration came from color tones when I was very young (around 9 years old) while I was admiring the faded color of the photos my parents had saved from their teenage years. I used to be extremely inspired by instant film (Polaroids) and I used to position my stuffed animals in different positions so that I could photograph them. Same with snails and other insects. You shoot a range of services for people, I often see more of a niche type of photography (like just wedding/ engagement related shoots, family stuff, editorial) coming from photographers. You do creative portraits on one end of the spectrum but manage to make wedding pictures look original and unboring. How do you juggle all of these very different types?
I think that it’s just a matter of true love for photography. That, and I like to incorporate my own style into wedding photos. I like to capture real emotions and edit in the same style that I would for creative portraiture.
In your creative portraits and landscape photography I’m definitely sensing a lot of nostalgia, like 50’s and 60’s aesthetics and witchy vibes to top it off. What are you trying to push with your style? Are you trying to have the audience feel a certain emotion from your work?
I am always trying to capture the essence of time traveling. As mentioned before, I’ve always been fond and inspired by faded color tones from the 70’s, but I am also inspired by film dated back to the early 20’s, etc. I love the thought of my portraits taking people back in time. I’m not really trying to make people feel a certain way, everyone is different, all I hope is that it makes people feel -something-. You are a young star that has been published in multiple places, like Vogue (eeep!!) and other contemporary spots around the web. What haven’t you done that is on your bucket list for photography?
So many things. I would love to be published in more print such as Frankie Magazine, Nylon, the list goes on. I would love to photograph a science fiction book cover. I’d like to become an established destination wedding photographer. I want to create my own miniature city and photograph it. I want to explore underwater photography. There’s just so many endless possibilities.
Catch more of Sarah England’s work and booking information here. X
thewildcardwins.com 