Empty Bedroom by Summer ‘07 contender Sarah Szwajkos

Today’s contender, Maine-based Sarah Szwajkos, takes perfect painterly photos. The above photo of a crisp, clean bedroom reminds me of Edward Hopper and his New England-type paintings. It also makes me think of the concept of the bedroom and it’s critical spatial elements.

Personally, I’ve always been something of a pack rat. I must have learned this from my mother, who has never thrown out a pair of shoes (seriously, there are hundreds of shoe boxes stored throughout the house). Nor could she ever even get rid of a cardboard jewelry box–she saved them all and has found something to store in each one of them.

My current bedroom, and entire apartment for that matter, outwardly exhibits this unfortunate quality of mine. I have old magazines everywhere, postcards from all over the world stashed in my apartment’s most intimate nooks and crannies, and coins–lots of them. Recently, however, I have been of the mindset that a cluttered apartment lends itself easily to a cluttered mind. I don’t know much about that feng shui shit, but I’m pretty sure that if I give over to the magic of minimalism, it might help simplify my life to some degree.

I bring this up now while faced with Szwajkos’s aptly titled Empty Bedroom, which is sparsely decorated to the say the least, as well as a somewhat perfect model of decorative asceticism. Szwajkos is hyper aware of my aforementioned neurosis. She understands that people allot tremendous value to their personal belongings and use these belongings to define themselves. She explains that with her camera she “sp[ies] on other people’s spaces” and “learn[s] about them by what they choose to surround themselves with.”

What we bring into our lives, and how we arrange our space — whether with thought or without care — reveal some of our basic creative urges. People construct shrines with their possessions, and day after day they pray at the altar of their own constructed order. By taking my camera in hand, by looking down onto its ground glass, I find revealed to me the secret order surrounding us — order that we impose to fit our individual lives. In this act, we create order out of chaos.

Right now, however, the state of my apartment leans more towards the realm of chaos than that of order. I can only imagine what it would be like for the proprietor of the empty bedroom to spend a night in my room. They would probably have an aneurysm. Not because my room is messy–it’s not, trust me. It’s neurotically organized, actually. It’s just that I have so much stuff. I always have. And I have always liked to display all of that stuff creatively around my bedroom.

It’s time for a change though. Looking at Szwajkos’s beautiful photo, I see peace and quiet. I can feel the calmness. It’s like Zen and the Art of Archery embodied. I wonder whose bedroom this is and what kind of person they are. I also wonder what its like to sleep at night in a room where the neutral carpeting matches the spotless walls as well as the color coordination in the floral comforter. Am I this kind of person or do I need all the posters on my walls and my books stacked all the way up to my ceiling? How can I re-decorate my personal space so that it’s still some kind of a shrine, but a shrine that will enable a healthier, clearer perspective on life? Maybe I should just get a plant. A big one.

While I continue my discussion with my inner interior decorator, here is a little bit more about today’s thought provoking contender, Sarah Szwajkos:

I grew up in a seemingly privileged & perfect family in the suburbs of Philadelphia (someday I’ll publish my book about that). I went to Catholic school, public school, private school, then a historically all-boys boarding school in Cambridge, England, then to an all-women’s college (Smith). I spent a little time in France, and a whole year in Florence, Italy. I am truly, deeply grateful for these opportunities, especially as they got me away from home and out on my own.

I hosted an exchange student from Paris after my freshman year of high school in 1990. She was four years older, and must have been bored out of her socks with me. However, we did visit NYC where she introduced me to the Body Shop, and Robert Doisneau’s photograph, “Le Baiser de l’Hotel de Ville”. Not only did I want someone to kiss me like that, but I thought, hey, I guess photography CAN be art!

Szwajkos began studying photography during her last year of high school and then studied at the Maine Photographic Workshops after graduating college. She has been photographing her friends’ homes since the year 2000. She is currently exhibiting her work in a group show called Up Close at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art.

Go, Sarah!

Wow. As I write this, you currently have 10 hours and 11 minutes left to enter the Summer edition of Hey, Hot Shot!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 11:49 pm by Marina and is filed under Contenders, Summer '07 Hot Shots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.