ARTIST STATEMENT
Near the beach in Los Angeles where I was raised, still live and work, I am wrapped in the gray morning fog of coastal California. Like so many of the California artists who inspire me, my photographic vision is fueled by this marine filter where description is possible without precision and sharpness sifts through ambiguity. It is in this space where the edge is not so specifically defined that I am most comfortable and where I find what I search for as an artist: seemingly empty spaces/moments that yet form a narrative that entices us in.
All the while I am reminded of the words of Robert Adams: “At our best and most fortunate we make pictures because of what stands before our camera, to honor what is greater and more interesting than we are.”
Whether my work is inspired by the grand and complex story of Detroit, my birth city; the energy of the Chinatowns; the gritty highways of LA; or evocative silence in public spaces; my focused projects are contemplative and open ended, tending to be organized from a fine art perception rather than by classic photojournalism and, while often still quite literal, curious in its perspective. Whether marine layer or the icy brilliance of a winter urban landscape, light and texture are critical. Most significant: presence.
With my camera, I respond to life by recording experiences hard to define, perhaps adding to my own biography as I capture that of others.
BIO
Los Angeles-based Sara Jane Boyers returned to a fine art photography practice after successful careers in music & publishing. Her interest is the American story, searching for presence and social meaning in everyday perspectives that challenge common perception.
Exhibited and collected internationally, a DETROIT:DEFINITION print, her long-term project on her birth city, was exhibited at the Venice Biennale/Architecture2016. In 2019, other Detroit prints were included in China’s 3rd International Exhibition of Industrial Photography at Beizhen, Liaoning Province PRC. Other projects include FINDING CHINATOWN: AN AMERICAN STORY exploring the USA & Canadian Chinatowns; GRIDLOCK, photographs shot with her little Leica D-Lux while stuck in traffic; SACRED.SILENT.WAITING, a contemplation of light and empty space; and REVISIT_RENEW_NEW, a mid-century architectural exploration. Her most current project is THE GHOSTLIGHT PROJECT, a photographic essay on live performance venues, dark during the pandemic.
Her work is exhibited, published in major media and collected internationally in public and private collections.
A published writer/editor, the 25th Anniversary Edition of Sara’s award-winning book, LIFE DOESN’T FRIGHTEN ME, pairing Jean-Michel Basquiat’s art with a 1978 Maya Angelou poem, was released by Abrams Books in 2018. Two other books for youth have been published and this year, a photographic book on THE GHOSTLIGHT PROJECT is presently in stores and online.
Boyers is concurrently working on literary and photographic projects
CV
RECENT SELECTED PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITIONS
___SOLO
November 2016 DETROIT:DEFINITION, A Work in Progress Galerie Claude Samuel, Paris
September 2015 DETROIT:DEFINITION, A Work in Progress_ Lille3000/RENAISSANCE Maison de la Photographie, Lille, France
March/April 2014: GRIDLOCK Leica Gallery Los Angeles
July/August 2011: FINDING CHINATOWN Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica CA
___GROUP
December 2021 Flora & Fauna, South X Southeast Gallery, Molena GA
September 2021 Swords Into Plowshares, Detroit MI
January 2021Art In The Plague Year UCR ARTS/California Museum of Photography, Riverside CA
September 2019 Transition:3rd Annual International Industrial Photography Festival, Liaoning Province, PRC
July 2019 Water Photo Place Gallery, VT, curated by Elizabeth Avedon
Summer 2018 Family Of No Man/Cosmos/Les Rencontres de la Photographie Arles France
March 2018 Museum Of Ennui, 2nd Edition Shoebox Gallery & The Shed, Brewery Art Studios LA
November 2017: Portraits SouthxSoutheast Photo Gallery, Molena GA curated by Elizabeth Avedon
June2017 Museum of Ennui, ed.,MartinCox, Far Away Right Here, Husavik Museum, Iceland
Summer 2017 Painting The Sky:The Kites Of Tyrus Wong W/ Photos By Sara Jane Boyers/MalibuCivicCtr
February 2017 Venice Biennale/Architecture2016:The Architectural Imagination/My DetroitMOCAD,Detroit
May 2016-November 2016: Venice Biennale/Architecture2016:The Architectural Imagination,US Pavilion Venice Italy
January 2016 ChineseAmerican: Exclusion/Inclusion The Oregon Historical Society, Portland OR
November2015 Amengo, Lille, France
June 2015: Both Sides Of Sunset: Photographing Los Angeles Hamburg/Kennedy NYC
March 2015: Water To Paper, Paint To Sky Museum of Chinese in America NYC (Tyrus Wong)
January 2015: SarahLeePROJECTS@PHOTO_LA
November 2014 Shelter: No Fixed Address The Leonardo Museum, Salt Lake City
September 2014: ChineseAmerican: Exclusion/Inclusion New York Historical Society NYC
April 2014: Powerhouse Boulevard3, Hollywood ASMP/MOPLA
November 2013: Kites, Wings, & Other Flying Things Pasadena Museum of History, Pasadena CA
November 2013: An Intimate View of Southern California/GroupSC 2009_Reinstallation, Medium Festival
of Photography, San Diego CA
August 2013: Water To Paper, Paint To Sky Walt Disney Family Museum SF (Tyrus Wong)
April 2013: Offsite: La Story, SarahLeeARTWORKS@Studio LA, a MOPLA exhibit
April 2013: ASMP/LA for MOPLA, Space 15TWENTY Hollywood
February 2013: ParisPhotoReview, curated by Sybylla Smith, Griffen Museum/DSI Gallery, MASS
May 2012: Best of the Year: ASMP/Architecture DESIGN CONNECTS, National AIA Conference2012, DC
May 2012: Looking Glass Analog Salon, Culver City, curated by Shana Nys Dambrot
March 2012 West Coast/West Coast @Divergence, FOTOFREO/FRINGE, Fremantle, Western
Australia/Midland Atelier (withMartinCox)
February 2012: Faraway, So Close Morono Kiang Gallery LA
January 2012: Round the Clock: Chinese American Artists Working in Los Angeles Vincent Price Art Museum,
East Los Angeles College, A GETTY Pacific Standard Time exhibition (Tyrus Wong & Kites)
SELECTED PHOTOGRAPHIC PUBLICATION/AWARDS
___PUBLICATION/BROACAST
2020: Center Theatre Group, ART GOES ON The Shop,(Online) 2020
2019: Klaus Rinke: Die Vierte Kraft, Wienand Books, Germany 2019
2017:
Summer: Modern Magazine, A Hand-Me-Up House, Pierre Koenig, Photographs by Sara Jane Boyers
January_ on TYRUS WONG: New York Times (front page)/Huffington Post/BBC/CBS Sunday Morning/Voice of America/
Interview Magazine_Germany
The Mockingbird/Winter Issue9
2016
1300Lafayette, Taubman School of Architecture, U of Michigan
Vassar Magazine/Detroit Fall2016
2015
DETROIT:DEFINITION- THE EXHIBITION CATALOG, Maison de la Photographie, Lille
End Title Cards, TYRUS: THE DOCUMENTARY PBS AmericanMasters _Pamela Tom, Filmmaker
BOTH SIDES OF SUNSET: PHOTOGRAPHING LOS ANGELES Ed. Jane Brown/DAP & Marla Hamburg Kennedy, Metropolis Books
Spring_Wall Street Journal (TyrusWong)
Dwell Magazine The Meridian House June 2014
2014 Smithsonian Magazine/smithsonianmag.com TyrusWong_Pamela Tom January
DETROIT: DEFINITION – A Work in Progress/Scouting 2011 – 2014
2013
WATER TO PAPER, PAINT TO SKY: THE ART OF TYRUS WONG: THE EXHIBITION CATALOGUE, The Walt Disney Family Foundation Press/Weldon Owen Publications, SF August
GO FLY A KITE: SATURDAYS AT THE BEACH WITH TYRUS WONG/Photographs Sara Jane Boyers, San Francisco Chronicle 2013
SACRED SILENT WAITING: A Work In Progress/Photographs Sara Jane Boyers December 2013
2012
Architectural Record Houses April 747 Wing House
WeldonOwen 2014 Catalogue/Chapter Heading Weldon Owen Publications, SF
THE GREAT PICTURE, Hudson Hills Press VT January 2012
ROUND THE CLOCK: CHINESE AMERICAN ARTISTS WORKING IN LOS ANGELES: THE EXHIBITION CATALOGUE, Sonia Mak (Author) Vincent Price Art Museum, a GETTY PST Exhibition
2011
FINDING CHINATOWN: THE EXHIBITION CATALOG, Craig Krull Gallery, Alan Rapp, Intro. August 2011_ www.sarajaneboyers.magcloud.com
Architect’s Newspaper (A/N) Blog, 747 House Sneak Peek June 2011
DETROIT: DEFINITION – A Work in Progress/Issue One_WINTER 2011 2009
INTO THE CHINATOWNS, Ed. by Paula Gillen & Sara Jane Boyers
___RECENT SELECTED PRESS:
THE ARCHITECTURAL IMAGINATION/VENICE BIENNALE/ARCHITECTURE 2016: Detroit Free Press, Fast Company. Architect’s Newspaper. Phaidon. Wallpaper Magazine Baunetz, Germany
It’s Nice That May/June 2016
Asian & Pacific Islander American Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide, LA Dept of Cultural Affairs 2018, 2011 – 2015 (2013cover photo)
Lenscratch Blog March 2014, August 2011, February 2010
Asian & Pacific Islander American Heritage Month Calendar & Cultural Guide, LA Dept of Cultural Affairs 2018, 2011 – 2015 (2013cover photo)
Rangefinder Magazine, March 2009
on_ DETROIT:DEFINITION
La Voix du Nord – Detroit : Décomposition – Recomposition 2015
L’Oeil de la Photographie: DETROIT:DEFINITION 24 September 2015
The Detroit Regional News Hub_LAX to DTW, A Native Daughter Returns to Define Detroit January 2011
City’s Bests/Detroit Roving Photographer Seeks to Define Detroit Her Way May 2011
on_GRIDLOCK @ Leica GalleryLA March/April2014
L’Oeil de la Photographie 3 April 2014
Lenscratch March 2014
DnA “5 Design Things to Do” KCRW
Leica Camera Blog 8 April 2014
The Candid Frame: A Photography Podcast #238
on_FINDING CHINATOWN @ Craig Krull Gallery
Art Review, Fabrik (Peter Frank) October 2011
Critics’ Choice, Los Angeles Times 28 August 2011
Art Review, Los Angeles Times 11 August 2011
“Chinatown Here, Chinatown There” Provisions Library/Art For Social Change July 2011
FINDING CHINATOWN: ON THE WALL Interview on UNDEREXPOSED (Susan Burnstine) August 2011
Lenscratch July 2011 www.lenscratch.blogspot.com
Coagula Art Journal 2011
on_Go Fly A Kite: Saturdays At the Beach with Tyru Wong/Water to Paper: Paint to Sky: the Tyrus Wong Retrospective
Juxtapoz September 2013, NYTimes, Washington Post, SF Chronicle
LA Weekly, Daily News, local newsweeklies
___NON-FICTION PHOTO ILLUSTRATION/PORTRAITS, INCLUDING:
“Papik Family Surf,” in A SUBURBAN CITY, Crabtree Publishing, Canada
“Samuel Freeman in HollyMascott,” Catalogue, Blue McRight, Samuel Freeman Gallery2009
THE PRODUCER’S DAUGHTER, Book Club
THE DEAD HOLLYWOOD MOMS SOCIETY, William Morrow
TEEN POWER POLITICS: MAKE YOURSELF HEARD, Millbrook Press
LITERARY: WRITING & PUBLICATION
LIFE DOESN’T FRIGHTEN ME, THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION, Abrams Books NYC (January2018).
Created & edited by Sara Jane Boyers w/ Afterword. Poetry by Maya Angelou. Paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat.
LIFE DOESN’T FRIGHTEN ME, Stewart, Tabori & Chang/Abrams, NYC (1993)
Created & edited by Sara Jane Boyers. Poetry by Maya Angelou. Paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat.
A Publisher’s Weekly “Best Book” of the Year, AIGA “50 Best Designed Books.” NYPL Teen Reading List. ALA
BBYA, 2007 Publisher’s Weekly “Contemporary Classics.”
O BEAUTIFUL FOR SPACIOUS SKIES Chronicle Books SF (1994)
Created & edited by Sara Jane Boyers w/ Forward. Poetry by Katharine Lee Bates. Paintings by Wayne Thiebaud.
TEEN POWER POLITICS: MAKE YOURSELF HEARD Sara Jane Boyers. The Millbrook Press. CT (2000)
Bank Street Best Books. VOYA Non-Fiction Honor List BBYA nominee. NYPL Besst Books.
___PUBLISHING/EDITING/WRITING/PRODUCTION/PUBLICATION
Summer2017: “…No, It’s Not the East,” DETROIT NEIGHBORHOOD GUIDEBOOK, Belt Publishing, Ohio
Publisher and Editor: Uplifter Pioneer, a literary journal
Poet/Contributor: Miscellaneous Anthologies
Freelance Journalism, including:
“”Protection for the Artist: The Alternatives” Copyright Law Symposium, Columbia University Press
“Teens and Politics” Booklinks
“Voting 101” & “The Electoral College” 2000 ChickClick.com
Contributor: WRITERS IN THE KITCHEN, T. Gardella.Ed. Boyd Mills Press
Television Producer/Creator/Co-writer: HEROES, CRITTERS & PALS Wonderworks (PBS) (developed)
___Recent LECTURES/Symposia
March 2016 Basquiat: StillFly@55 NYU/Africana Studies/Dept of Social & Cultural Analysis, NYU/Tandon
June 2013 The Photographer’s Eye/Finding Chinatown PHOTO FRIENDS, LA Central Library
Workshops, conferences & keynotes on art, poetry and politics including at MOCA, MFAH,
schools & libraries nationally, Kids Voting USA
___BLOGS:
sarajaneboyersisaloud.blogspot.com
findingchinatown.blogspot.com
detroitdefinition.blogspot.com
Los Angeles League of Photographers: lalopblog.blogspot.com (inactive)
E-newsletter: teenpowerpolitics.com (inactive)
COLLECTIONS:
___Selected public collections:
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Annenberg Department of Photography
Huntington Library, San Marino CA
The Institute and Museum of California ART (IMC)/UCI
The Buck Collection
Chinese Historical Society of Southern California
The Leonardo Museum, Salt Lake City
Los Angeles City, Department of Recreation & Parks
___Selected Private collections:
John Walsh, Director Emeritus of the J. Paul Getty Museum
Michael LaBrie, Director of Collections, Walt Disney Family Museum
Sarah Lee, Sarah Lee Artworks
Eugene Moy, President Emeritus of Chinese Historical Society of Southern California
Michael Deasy, Deasy Penner Architectural Realtor
Los Angeles: Contemporary art & photography, curatorial, architectural, music & film industry collections
New York: Tribeca contemporary art & Italian fashion collections
Sundance, UT; Toledo, Ohio; Detroit, MI, Pittsburgh, PA: Noted private photography collections
Europe: London, Paris, Venice collections
EDUCATION
Master Class, Architectural Photography/Douglas Hill, Los Angeles
J.D., The Law Center, University of Southern California
National Fifth Prize, ASCAP Nathan Burkan Nationwide Law School Copyright Competition.
First Prize, ASCAP Nathan Burkan Competition on Copyright Law at the Law Center
B.A., Art History, University of California (Berkeley & UCLA)
CAREER HISTORY
Present: Sara Jane Boyers Photography/ Literary Productions, Santa Monica, CA
Fine Art Photography – exhibition & curatorial/architectural.
Book Author/Editor: Major trade publications
Speaker/Moderator
Freelance journalism & content provision.
Press writer, designer & art consultant for artists, authors, art business, non-profits.
Past 1: Sara Jane Boyers Management, Inc., Venice, CA
Personal career management for recording artists, musicians/composers, actors and entertainers.
Past 2: Music Industry attorney/executive, including MCA Records, Inc. (Department Head) & United Artists
PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY & WRITER AFFILIATIONS
___Photographic: The Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP)
Photographic Arts Council/Los Angeles
Association of Media Photographers (ASMP)/ Architecture & Fine Art Specialty Groups
Past affiliations: Photographic Arts Council/LACMA; Los Angeles League of Photographers Editorial Photographers/APA
___Writing: The Authors’ Guild
SCBWI (Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators)
Inactive groups/past affiliations: PEN/Hollywood Women’s Political Committee
___Art Support: Original Founder, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
HammerPLUS
LACMA
Inactive/past affiliations:
Modern & Contemporary Arts Council/LACMA (one of first “junior members”)
Vice-Chairman/Educational Chairman
Co-Chairman, Entertainment Alliance Committee, LACMA
Fellows of Contemporary Art
LANGUAGES
French (fluent/rusty), Spanish (moderate), Italian (un po’)