About

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’)