Sarah Fought is a local photographer and native to the area. I immediately connected to her work through the exquisite textures and decomposition of subjects she chooses to capture in her photographs. Photography was introduced to Fought at the early age of 11, when her father, who himself an amateur photographer, gave Sarah her first automatic camera. Throughout the years it was a convenient and free hobby she aspired to continue, getting hand-me-down equipment as her father would get new. She dabbled in painting and drawing but felt more competent with a camera in her hands rather than a paint brush. Fought was sort of born into the medium after all!
In much of her work presented at the Art Walk-In, subjects were derived from her passion and love of architecture. Fought engulfs herself in vast environments of abandoned factory buildings, acknowledging an intuitive emotion where she just loves being in these "big complexes with no humans around", more the "mechanics behind the building" than any life that previously existed within it. However, an interesting dynamic is exposed through the absence of people. Through these images of abandoned "life" I personally felt an eery presence through the decaying desk, chair or work bench that seems to just have been left there to rot alone, abandoned without reason. Fought says that even now, after 15 years, while she's photographing she feels like someone will be there; that one day "someone will be standing there" waiting to return to work.
I thought it was very interesting how Fought actually finds these places that have been forgotten about by the rest of the world, which she still finds very beautiful and aesthetically interesting. "The internet helps a lot", she states, as well as knowing where to look. Yet more importantly, historic landmarks and patience plot her map of exploration, while constantly keeping her eyes open for an abandoned building wherever the next journey takes her. "Sometimes it may be 6 months or 10 years before returning [to a site]" but when it is time, she just knows.
