Alphabet Sara Cwynar
(Film 3 of 4) Artist Sara Cwynar investigates and deconstructs the role of photography in contemporary life. These four documentary shorts follow Cwynar as she responds to the billions of images that circulate the internet, on the street, and in our homes each day. Through her practice, she explores how these images influence our understanding of beauty, value, and memory in the age of mass media. “Photography has always had this relationship with design and capitalism, where it makes the things that get made seem desirable,” shares Cwynar. “In all my work, I’m trying to think about how that can be problematic, but also, there’s a lot of pleasure in buying things.” Collaging personal snapshots with found photographs and advertisements, Cwynar contemplates and complicates the medium of photography.
Credits
Executive Producer: Tina Kukielski. Series Producer: Ian Forster. Director of Development: Lolita Fierro. Associate Director of Communications: Hannah DeGarmo. Associate Curator: Jurrell Lewis. Curatorial Assistant: Noor Tamari.
Production Company: Rava Films. Producers: Ava Wiland & Rafael Salazar Moreno. Managing Producer: Danielle Davis.
Director: Ava Wiland. Producer: Danielle Davis. Cinematography: Rafael Salazar Moreno. Additional Cinematography: Sean Hanley & Georgia Pantazopoulos . Editor: Russell Yaffe. Sound: Russell Yaffe. Assistant Producer: Hyungjin Lee. Colorist: Russell Yaffe. Sound Mix: Russell Yaffe. Assistant Editor: Sam Klein. Music: Spacelute. Composers: Troy Herion and J.R. Narrows. Title Design: Alina Rancier.
Artwork Courtesy: Sara Cwynar, Cooper Cole, and The Approach. Archival Footage: 52 Walker.
Special Thanks: 52 Walker, ICA Boston.
© Art21, Inc. 2025. All rights reserved.
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Sara Cwynar was born in 1985 in Vancouver, Canada, and currently lives and works in New York City. The artist received her BA from York University in 2010 and her MFA from Yale University in 2016. Using photography, film, found materials, and collage, the artist explores the role that photography and image-making have in the production of meaning and value. Cwynar investigates visual cultures and how they change over time: collecting, altering, and re-presenting visual imagery from a wide variety of sources and time periods to comment on the role of commercial and everyday photography in shaping values, ideologies, and aesthetics.
Sara Cwynar in <i>IRL/url</i>
“Photography has always had this relationship with design, and with capitalism, where it makes the things that get made seem desirable. In all my work, I’m trying to think about how that can be problematic, but also there’s a lot of pleasure in buying things.”
Sara Cwynar