The “Photographer of the week” series is dedicated to highlighting photographers within the SCAD community that demonstrate unique abilities behind the lens. This week, Sarah Dicks, a fourth-year fine art photography student shares her recent project and personal insight.
When did you start your photography journey and what does photography mean to you?
I’ve never been the best with words. As a visual learner, comprehension comes naturally when I can see what I am learning. Photographs remember everything, even once the moment captured has been long-forgotten. There is an aberrant sense of beauty in the fact that even when the people or the place change, the image taken will remain the same. When I was 7 years old, I went to the Philippines with my family and a small, pink camera. At an orphanage, I met a girl named Sunshine and photographed her for the first time in her life. Even though I was unaware at the time, this experience sparked my passion for photographing people. When I reflect on this experience, I can still see her smile. As I got older, I began making images to learn what my life means to me, what our lives mean to us, what her life meant to her. Taking a photo of what someone or somewhere looks like is a simple task, but to capture the essence of a person or a location is an extraordinary experience. My goal is never to shoot a subject for what it looks like, but to capture what it feels like.
Models: Aaron Dicks (ig: @aarcns) and Manny Timmons (ig: @almightytimmons)
When I was 15, I created an Instagram to share my photography. My mom and I came up with the name stillthepix, and it stuck, I’ve developed a connection with having my work be recognized beyond the typical “Sarah Dicks Photography”. Though it’s somewhat untraditional not to fully link my name with my work and I have gotten some criticism from it, but it feels right with the work I’m producing.
Where do you attain your inspiration for your work?
I like to attain my inspirations through reading opposed to viewing images. While creating the work for one of my most recent projects I’ve revisited places that remind me of previous events in my life. Lately I’ve felt myself being overwhelmed with the feeling of having a big question mark over my head of why I’ve begun to be drawn to creating work in this way. Throughout the past two months I’ve realized that what I want to do is capture and appreciate all of the moments that aren’t guaranteed. When I first came to SCAD, I had all of these over-the-top dreams, which isn’t a bad thing, but I thought that’s what it took to be successful. One of the most pivotal things I’ve learned is that these dreams mean nothing if we don’t make it there to see them. We as humans have to appreciate every step we take in order to grow and evolve into better people, as well as artists.
In a sense I want to accentuate that we are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. We are here to observe, to learn, to grow, to love, and then we return home. I’ve been working on detaching myself from needing to have things work out a certain way. Detachment involves “present moment living” — living in the here and now. I’ve been challenging myself to allow life to happen instead of trying to control it. I’ve relinquished regrets over the past and fears about the future, I’ve made the most of each day.
Models: Manny Timmons, John Dicks (ig: @johndicks16), Charley Willerton-Mckee (ig: @charley.wm),
Amanda (ig: @aj.smada), Aaron Dicks, Ashton Harris (ig: @vshtxn), Lilya Conley (ig: @lilyaconley).
What is your creative process like per shoot?
Anytime I’m going into a shoot I think the most important thing for me is to familiarize myself with my subject regardless of it being a person or a place. It’s important to understand what my subject and I want to accomplish together. When photographing people I think the most important thing is building a comfortable relationship between myself and the individual. When photographing a place I’ve learned that I have to look beyond just the location, I have to ask myself what makes my experience in this location different from every other person who has been here?
I go into each shoot with a plan of what I want to accomplish based on the task, but I leave myself freedom to let the energy between the lens and the subject flow and develop on its own.
What impact do you want to have on the industry?
I want my work to make an impact that lasts much longer than myself. Over the past two years I’ve been working to detach myself from needing to have things work out a certain way. I’ve been challenging myself to allow life to happen instead of trying to control it. I’ve relinquished regrets over the past and fears about the future, I’ve made the most of each day. I want to share this mindset with others, I want to encourage people to find the good moments in the tough times.
What project(s) are you currently working on?
I just finished the beginning stages of my two most recent projects, The Divine Mind and Time is a Goddess. The Divine Mind is a portrait-based project; the divine mind encompasses all that exists, and that can exist, and all that has ever existed. Through this project, I am transcending beyond the experience of the human soul while keeping the essential form of our individual consciousness. The divine mind does not “think”, it operates beyond the use of thought, it just is.
Time is a Goddess is the first landscape-based project I’ve worked on. Through the duration of this project, I struggled more than I ever have while creating a body of work. Through these struggles, I’ve learned a lot about myself and my reason for making work. In a sense, I want to accentuate that we are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. We are here to observe, to learn, to grow, to love, and then we return home. There was a specific quote by Michael Kelleher I read halfway into this project – he says that “Time is an ethereal and sometimes cruel goddess. In her relentless passing, she steals away our youth and vitality, often in ways that seem insignificant until we finally realize how much she has taken. Still, she is also a generous deity, who offers to replace what she has seized with deeper wisdom and a clearer vision of life’s enigmas. In this sense, time can be our most powerful ally-if we are patient enough.”
I began creating The Divine Mind and Time is a Goddess for two different classes I took this past quarter (Winter 2021). While continuing to build these projects outside of class, I intend to soon begin working on a portfolio which somewhat combines and builds on what I’ve learned throughout working on The Divine Mind and Time is a Goddess.
Is there any advice you’d like to leave to other aspiring photographers or SCAD students?
There are two things I want to leave for any aspiring photographers or artists in general, both in and outside of SCAD — don’t get discouraged by things happening around you. The best bit of advice I’ve ever gotten was “just make good photographs and they will be noticed.”
The other thing is from an article by Angelo Caerlang called “All I Want Is To Be Happy,” which I will link. Angelo says that “I live every day making sure I do more, I perform better, I learn something new. I need to constantly remind myself to strive for greatness. I barely live in the present. My mind is in the future most of the time. The moment I open my eyes in the morning, I am already thinking and planning about what I’m going to do in the next five years. But what I forget to ask myself sometimes is: What am I working hard for? I almost always exclude happiness as a reason for all of my efforts in life. Maybe I assume that by being successful, I can automatically be happy. Maybe if I have all the things that I desire in life, I can already feel accomplished. Maybe if tons of people recognize my name, I can make my loved ones proud of me. I don’t want to see myself one day as victorious but unhappy. I want to see myself smiling regardless of where I am and what I have in life. I want to work on something not because it’s for my future but because it’s for my happiness. I don’t want to worry about where I’m going. I need to learn to embrace the joy that comes from within. I don’t mind if I live in a very simple world. As long as I’m in a place where I can immediately find peace. As long as I’m doing what I’m passionate about. All I want is to become the person who chooses happiness above all and is proud of it. I want to live a life in which I don’t have to think so much about my future because living in the present is already enough. And I want to smile at the world I’ve created.” (All I Want Is To Be Happy by Angelo Caerlang).
To see more of her Dick’s work, you may visit her Instagram.
