by Like the trail of cigarette smoke that has wafted through the Howard Greenberg Gallery on Wednesday afternoon, Sarah Moon’s art is both elusive and unrecognizable.
In New York from Paris to install a new exhibition in the East 57th Street space, the photographer and filmmaker offered a preview while chatting about her work. Nonchalant about the depth of her talents, Moon, 83, periodically shrugged her shoulders, as if to punctuate the inexplicable nature of everything she does. Even her outfit — a dark gray cashmere sweater with one collar of her black blouse tucked in and the other out, a silver beaded necklace, a hidden stack of thin silver bracelets, a large coiled silver ring, black blouse pants and black sneakers — channeled a restless energy , despite being one of the most famous contemporary artists in France. The occasional lightening that she held in one hand seemed to unintentionally point that point.
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Having worked with Howard Greenberg for years, Moon said she was willing to oblige on the request for a show, provided it wasn’t one way. “That’s how I work. I do fashion, but I also do other things. For me, it has to do with work,” she said.
Opening Saturday and on view through April 6, “Sarah Moon: On Edge” features 30 images spanning four decades of work. Ethereal fashion photographs from Dior, Hussein Chalayan, Yohji Yamamoto and others are interspersed with black-and-white painted shots like the shadow of a New York City skyscraper, a person she worked with carrying a pole on a tightrope and a bar in his hand. , and an abstract description of The Eye in London, which hides the Ferris wheel tourist attraction. An overhead shot of the lower half of a woman lying in the grass in a long skirt and patterned stockings is shown by the nearby lily pad. “It was a fashion photo. I was supposed to photograph a hat, but then I saw her legs,” said Moon.
But Moon insists that the image is not an image at all, preferring to lay out the show sequentially, which conforms to the French belief. “assembly“ in that “two photographs make a third.” She explained, “And when you go forward, it’s meaningful.” Passing over a photo showing the Coney Island skyline next to “Papillon by Christian Dior,” 2022, Moon said, “It’s more about a sequence. When you normally move from there to that place, it’s the same story. It’s about the architecture and the mindset.”
Agreeing that the symmetry is visible, Moon said, “That’s the thing – you can see it. If you ask me why, it takes a long time. I can’t really explain the connection. His explanation really distorts the meaning.”
To make that point, as soft-spoken as ever, with almost every word Moon speaks, she referred to a Samuel Beckett quote she performed in a museum show, “‘Saying it without knowing what it is,’ [laughs] So I hide behind this sentence, because it’s not mine.”
Moon’s work will be discussed in an exhibition at the Fundación Foto Colectania in Barcelona which will be revealed on June 19. Visitors will find her latest film, a 20-minute piece about “what she does,” she said. Her work can also be seen with Martin Parr and other stand-out talents in a group show at the Serrería Belga Cultural Space in Spain before the end of March.
Her experience as a former fashion model resulted in not only an understanding of modeling but also a certain complicity with models. “To me, they know they’re not on stage but backstage. That’s how I was in the beginning, and that’s how it is now, even though they could be my children. He is [a matter of] trust and confidence,” she said. “It’s an interview. They have the first part, and we work together.”
Moon’s love of fashion has always stemmed from another reason — “for the dream it brings to a woman,” she said. “There’s a reason you choose [what you do.] You don’t know if it’s for you or not. You just need to recognize it.”
As a result of modeling work she started taking photos of her friends and colleagues. Of course, fashion has changed, considering the heroines no longer Marilyn [Monroe], [Greta] Garbo or Lauren Bacall. “They are in the music industry. Young girls identify more with musical images. There is also a wider range [of heroines],” she said.
Fashion changes a lot, “fashion is always a dream whether you can afford it or not, or built or not. It’s probably for the young woman and then it’s more communal. There is a desire to look that way or another way. And it’s fashion. It changes with the times. Fashion is in time,” said Moon, an inductee into the International Photography and Museum Hall of Fame.
In common with Japanese designers for their eternity, the photographer favors structured silhouettes such as those of Chalayan, Maria Grazia Chiuri of Dior and Yamamoto, whose designs are featured in the show.
Most days are non-stop for Moon, who takes her camera everywhere, playfully using her hands to convey tunnel vision. “That’s what I love. … As long as I can do it, I think it’s a privilege at my age.”
The focus is less on fashion jobs, however, as the lens woman draws more on film and what affects her. More than anything, though, Moon hopes people will hear her “little song” when they see her work. “If they hear it, it’s better than if they don’t.”
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