Sara Rawlinson

Sara Rawlinson is a contemporary photographer specialising in abstract fine art and architectural photography. Her first career in academic earth science still heavily influences her photography to show textures, landscapes, and geological current events such as sea level rise and volcanic eruptions.

She has had a camera in her hands most days since she was six years old working in the field and in her grandma’s darkroom. This was then followed by a decade in academic earth science and natural hazards. She returned to photography on a full time basis in 2013.

In her fine art abstract work, Rawlinson uses her camera to create memories of moments rather than recording specific details, with the aim to make photos with intentional movement and often without context to evoke an ephemeral and painterly aesthetic. Her work evokes the essence of a subject by leaning towards the ‘significant form’ idea from the 1920s Bloomsbury Group’s Clive Bell – that a good work of art is so defined by its ability to provoke ‘aesthetic emotion’ in the viewer and has little, if anything, to do with subject identification or representation.

Many of Rawlinson’s photographs and self-published books have been shortlisted for international awards and ar...

Rawlinson first learned photography when she was six years old working in the field and in the darkroom with professional fine art photographer Bette Globus Goodman in Minneapolis and has rarely left the house since without a camera in hand. Photography followed her through a first career in earth science and running seismology field projects on many continents. She returned to photography on a full time basis in 2013 and uses her PhD in science to inform her fine art photography.

Rawlinson's academic years still heavily influence her photography - often showcasing textures, landscapes, geological features, and geological current events such as sea level rise and volcanic eruptions.

2023:
- Open Studios, first four weekends in July (EVERYONE IS WELCOME)
- London Photo Show, Oxo Tower, Nov

2022:
- Artist Open Studio, Cambridge, first four weekends in July 2022
- 'Kill or Cure', invited piece in group exhibition, Wolfson College, until 15 September 2022
- Julia Margaret Cameron Awards exhibition, Barcelona, October 2022

ON PERMANENT DISPLAY:
- Cambridge University Press Bookshop, Cambridge

2020/2021:
- A Tale of Two Stories, invited solo exhibition, Cambridge, Nov 2020 to June 2021

2019:
- Heong Gallery, solo exhibition, February
- Cambridge Open Studios, July
- Michaelhouse, Cambridge, solo exhibition, October

2018:
- King’s College Chapel, invited solo exhibition, Cambridge, Aug
- Cambridge Open Studios, July

2017:
- Illuminating Cambridge Libraries, Cambridge, solo exhibition, October