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Arts Intel Report

Sarah Moon D'Après Nature

Sarah Moon, Cotinga du Pérou et Trichoglossus du Timor, 2000.

15 Rue de la Chaîne, 76000 Rouen, France

Sarah Moon was born Marielle Warin in 1941 in England. Her family was Jewish and had fled Nazi-occupied France. When she was 19, Moon began to model, using the name Marielle Hadengue, but by 1968 she’d positioned herself behind the camera. Two years later she changed her name to Sarah Moon, a suggestion of the mysterious lunar atmosphere she would bring to so much of her imagery. Moon worked on advertising campaigns and posters, and did shoots for glossy magazines. Her dreamlike visions and ethereal atmospheres quickly propelled her to stardom and came to be internationally recognized for their literary and film references. “For me, photography is pure fiction,” Moon has said. “I don’t believe that I am making any defined statement. Instead, I am expressing something, an echo of the world maybe.” She is now 85. This exhibition focuses on the gardens and their fauna that Moon has photographed through the decades, and also presents a new series of photographs recently taken in Normandy, on view for the first time. —Elena Clavarino