Sarahphotogirl, Life Through A Lens – A Photographic Exhibition, The Living Room, York, until October 5

2:05pm Friday 5th September 2008

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SARAH Photogirl knew she was destined to be a photographer.

“When I was a kid, growing up in South Yorkshire, I was always taking photographs and even at that stage, I had a feeling that that they were better than other people’s pictures,” says Sarah, whose latest exhibition has opened at The Living Room, York.

“Even if it was a simple snapshot, it was really nicely framed. I’d got the right sense of composition, and at some point I thought that was a little boring, and I realised it wasn’t always ideal to have someone perfectly framed.”

That point came to fruition while she studied film, television and literature at York St John.

“I travelled everywhere to see gigs, sometimes not getting back till 3am to do lectures in the morning, but the great thing was that they allowed my first exhibition to be part of my degree, with the exhibition being held in parts of the university.

“Back then there was only one other person I ever saw in the dark room, and it got to the point where if I did see someone in there I’d get offended, and I even started decorating the walls with my photos.”

Now 31, Sarahphotogirl has become a photographer to the stars from Paul Weller to the Kaiser Chiefs, Paul Weller to Shed Seven, Madonna to Gwen Stefani, Thom Yorke, to Pete Doherty. Ah, Pete Doherty, the erratic Babyshambles singer, he certainly made an impression on Sarah.

“He bit my arm! He was being a bit overfriendly and his tour manager told him to leave me alone, so he started play-acting and bit my arm, which I’m sure was only playful but it did draw blood. Perhaps I should have bitten him back!”

Perhaps not, but then in her other career as an bit-part actress – with the emphasis on bit in this case – she has played a cannibal in the gothic comedy Shaun Of The Dead.

“I was the ginger one eating the stomach of Snake Hips, and it’s not every day that a girl gets to eat a man’s stomach in a back yard,” Sarah says.

Sarah is branching out from pop and rock portraits to wedding photography, fashion images and commercial photography, and into writing children’s literature too. Her love of the fantastical is reflected in her latest work, alongside the rock icons, at The Living Room. Her new direction finds Sarah appearing in her own photographs inspired by the worlds of Alice In Wonderland and The Wizard Of Oz.

She calls the photographs Her Dark Materials, even if the images are as multicoloured as the Scarborough sea front’s light show.

“This is what I’ve been longing to produce – I have a vivid imagination and I need to humour it for a while,” she says. “Moving on from the portraits was inevitable; I crave a challenge.”

* Sarahphotogirl, Life Through A Lens – A Photographic Exhibition, runs at The Living Room, York, until October 5. Limited edition prints are through Sarah’s website.