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My contact sheet
My contact sheet
Sara Messinger
October 25, 2024
LFI: When and why do you decide to take a photo?
Sara Messinger: I try to not think too much when making photographs. I know that I’m doing my best work when my brain shuts off and my subconscious takes over. I want to make photographs intuitively. I want to make images when a moment makes me feel something – that is when I know that I’m photographing from my heart and not my brain.
Your contact sheets show a coherence with regard to the surroundings, whether outdoor or indoor shots; how do you proceed when using the film?
Again there isn’t much prior thought about whether or not I’ll be shooting indoors or outdoors. I always have the same film speed in my camera. I think this allows me to understand how to work with the film in all different lighting conditions. I know how the film will react to various lighting conditions. The 400 speed film is also very versatile, and I can make it work in low-light as well as intense lighting conditions.
What is your process for “approaching” a situation/the perfect moment?
What I could understand from my contact sheets is that I’m definitely trying to anticipate a moment. I see something unfolding, and I’m making pictures and moving, trying to not just capture “the moment” but perhaps find “the moment” as well. I think it’s important to recognize that it’s not just the capturing of the moment, but it’s the photographer’s ability to move and find it too. Part of my practice ibcludes composing in camera. I don’t crop my pictures in post-production. This makes it even more important to move your feet in order to find the perfect composition. It feels like a very meditative and focused process when I’m in the middle of it. I’m searching for the perfect composition to wrap the moment in.
What significance do contact sheets have for you?
Contact sheets are very important to me as they serve as an archive. I’ve worked on certain projects where I haven’t had the emotional bandwidth to edit, but I have the contact sheets tucked away in a box that I plan to come back to in time. It allows you to take space from your work, and return to it with fresh eyes and partially removed. In the case of Shadow of a Teenage Daydream, I’m so hands on with the work that sometimes I overlook an image. The contact sheets allow me to come back to the negatives and see something that I didn’t see when I was so close to the work.
Katja HübnerSara Messinger: I try to not think too much when making photographs. I know that I’m doing my best work when my brain shuts off and my subconscious takes over. I want to make photographs intuitively. I want to make images when a moment makes me feel something – that is when I know that I’m photographing from my heart and not my brain.
Your contact sheets show a coherence with regard to the surroundings, whether outdoor or indoor shots; how do you proceed when using the film?
Again there isn’t much prior thought about whether or not I’ll be shooting indoors or outdoors. I always have the same film speed in my camera. I think this allows me to understand how to work with the film in all different lighting conditions. I know how the film will react to various lighting conditions. The 400 speed film is also very versatile, and I can make it work in low-light as well as intense lighting conditions.
What is your process for “approaching” a situation/the perfect moment?
What I could understand from my contact sheets is that I’m definitely trying to anticipate a moment. I see something unfolding, and I’m making pictures and moving, trying to not just capture “the moment” but perhaps find “the moment” as well. I think it’s important to recognize that it’s not just the capturing of the moment, but it’s the photographer’s ability to move and find it too. Part of my practice ibcludes composing in camera. I don’t crop my pictures in post-production. This makes it even more important to move your feet in order to find the perfect composition. It feels like a very meditative and focused process when I’m in the middle of it. I’m searching for the perfect composition to wrap the moment in.
What significance do contact sheets have for you?
Contact sheets are very important to me as they serve as an archive. I’ve worked on certain projects where I haven’t had the emotional bandwidth to edit, but I have the contact sheets tucked away in a box that I plan to come back to in time. It allows you to take space from your work, and return to it with fresh eyes and partially removed. In the case of Shadow of a Teenage Daydream, I’m so hands on with the work that sometimes I overlook an image. The contact sheets allow me to come back to the negatives and see something that I didn’t see when I was so close to the work.
ALL IMAGES ON THIS PAGE: © Sara Messinger
EQUIPMENT: Leica M6, M4-P, Elmarit-M 28 f/2.8 Asph, Summicron-M 50 f/2 Asph
LFI 7.2024+-
Find more photographs of Sara Messinger in LFI Magazine 7.2024. More
Sara Messinger+-
Born in a suburb of Philadelphia in 1998, she began studies of photography at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study of the NYU, and completed them with a Bachelors of Arts. Since then she has been working as a documentary photographer on long-term projects, with an emphasis on gender, identity and sub-cultures. In 2021 she was selected by The New York Times magazine to document the “reawakening” of New York City after the tough year of the Covid lockdown. Messinger lives in New York. More
