Sarah Hadley: Lost Venice

Sarah Hadley: Lost Venice by Aline SmithsonOctober 14, 2019

©Sarah Hadley, Palazzo Splendente, from Lost Venice

So much of what we are drawn to comes from the stew of our growing up, and in the case of Sarah Hadley, there is a direct line from her childhood to her project and now book, Lost Venice. As she states in her bio, “When I was just four years old, my father became the Director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and my family moved into the apartment on the 4th floor which Mrs. Gardner had built for herself. I spent the next 19 years living in a Venetian palazzo surrounded by Gardner’s eclectic collection of classic and renaissance artwork and furnishings.” Her father was also entranced by all things Venice and the family spent vacations in this remarkable city. He died when Sarah was 25 and her project, Lost Venice, speaks to memory, loss, dark corners, and a city itself that is fragile in its existence.

In 2020, Damiani Editore will publish Lost Venice and Sarah will be pre-selling books and a Special Edition of 50 copies in a slipcase along with 5 signed and editioned archival prints. Each print is part of an edition of 11 and she will be selling edition numbers 1-10 of all 5 prints. You get to select the print you want. These prints have never been shown or sold before and will not be sold at this size or price again. She is also offering a private tour and lunch at the Gardner Museum for just 8 people (who will meet in Boston at an arranged day and time – probably summer/fall of 2020). Please consider pre-purchasing now to help her off set the publishing costs.

©Sarah Hadley, Lost Venice Cover

©Sarah Hadley, Lost Venice Special Edition, Slipcase with Circling Wishes print

Lost Venice

Venice, Italy is a haunting, surreal and mysterious place with a storied past. Its seemingly endless maze of passageways and canals have fascinated me since I was a child. And while most people visit Venice and see only its overwhelming beauty, I see a dark and sadder side as well. I see a city clinging to a bygone era and splendor and I see a Venetian way of life that is rapidly changing while its foundations are eroding. For me, the city is also haunted with memories of my childhood and the loss of my father.

 I chose Venice because of my long history with the city – one that began when I was  four years old in Boston, and my family moved to a replica of a Venetian  Palace – the Gardner Museum. We lived in the Director’s apartment above the museum for most of my childhood. We traveled to Venice often for my father’s work and I lived and worked there in my twenties. The sadness in these photographs is about death of my father, who died suddenly when I was 25, and it is also my feelings about the loss of my childhood home, that Venetian Palace, and about the fragility and impermanence of things. – Sarah Hadley

©Sarah Hadley, Lost Venice Special Edition, Slipcase with Traghetto Crossing print

Born and raised in Boston, Sarah Hadley studied Art History and Italian at Georgetown University and Photography at the Corcoran College of Art. She interned at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy and later worked at the Venice Biennale, the National Gallery of Art and the Library of Congress. She lived in Chicago for twelve years and founded the Filter Photo Festival in 2009.

Hadley was named one of the “jeunes talents” by Le Monde at the Fotofever Art Fair in Paris in 2015. She has also exhibited internationally at the Porto Photo Festival (Portugal), the Lishui Photo Festival (China), the Worldwide Photography Biennial (Buenos Aires) and the Ballarat Festival (Australia). She has had solo exhibition at the Griffin Museum of Photography (Boston, MA), the Loyola Museum of Art (Chicago, IL), Afterimage Gallery (Dallas, TX), and Fabrik Projects Gallery (Los Angeles, CA). Hadley’s work has also been featured in publications and online blogs including Elle Italia, PDN, L’Oeil de la Photographie, ArtTribune, Shots Magazine, Lenscratch, B+W Magazine (UK), Don’t Take Pictures and F-Stop Magazine. She has received grants from the California Center for Cultural Innovation, the Illinois Arts Council, and several fellowships from the Ragdale Foundation. Hadley currently lives and works in Los Angeles and her first monograph Lost Venice will be published by Damiani Editore in 2020.