Nadia Sablin
Nadia Sablin is a photographer, whose work blurs the line between documentary and fictional storytelling, exploring the larger world through close personal narratives. She is a Guggenheim fellow and has published books with Duke University Press and Dewi Lewis. She teaches at SUNY New Paltz.
Artist Statement
Photography for me has been a medium through which I understand and engage with the world. It is a form of storytelling through which I share my explorations with others, encouraging understanding and empathy for the complexity of human experience. Primarily photographing in small communities, I spend months and sometimes years engaging with the locals and with the landscape to witness and record the personal histories which quietly shape and are shaped by history. As an intuitive photographer, I follow threads of my readings, local rumors, stories, and suggestions. My images are often documentary in style, but they are concerned with more than naked fact. I am drawn to emotion and metaphor found in the landscape, the gesture, the fleeting moment. Through photographs and recorded stories, I’m interested in finding visual connections between current reality and multi-generational memory. I explore how emotions and childhood experiences determine the way in which we perceive and navigate the present.
At Tusen Takk
In this time of conflict, I want to turn my attention to its opposite – healing. On my travels, I have collected suitcases of materials about medicinal plants and traditional folk medicine. In residence, I plan to photograph a series of still lifes for an artist book of recipes for healing, using my collection of texts, plants, embroidery, and archival photographs. In addition I plan to engage with the local landscape and community and document the time of my stay at Tusen Takk.
Instagram: @nadiasablin
