Sage Szkabarnicki-Stuart

Sage Szkabarnicki-Stuart began experimenting with photography and self portraiture while finishing up university in Canada. The decision to focus on self-portraiture arose out of practical necessity. Certain works, such as one where she poses with two wild swans in the water, proved dangerous to attempt and time-intensive, which made it difficult to find someone else to be the model. Sage developed techniques for doing complex photoshoots by herself using a remote. Her photoshoots often entail weeks of trial and error, conducted without a studio. Instead, Sage has mastered the art of synchronizing her work with the weather and time of day, utilizing natural light to illuminate her sets in combination with one or two consumer-grade flashes. Her photographs are often captured illicitly in public city parks during the early morning hours, predominantly in Toronto, Canada. Sage's work is tied to the land: her elders' traditions of animal husbandry and Ontario's flora and fauna are key themes across the images. She recently moved to a small rural part of Ontario, where she combines the work on her small farm with the subject matter of her photography.