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Into The Ether With Sarah Ann Loreth:

Sarah Ann Loreth, a self-taught photographer from New Hampshire, crafts her high-concept images based on the work of her favorite writers, poets and musicians.

“Sometimes I do exercises where I’ll pick a line in a poem and try to think of a visual concept to go along with it,” she told us. “But my best concepts come to be in that half consciousness between dreaming and awake. I keep a notebook in my bed to write as I dream.”

From that notebook, Sarah plans every extraneous detail of her shoots, many of which are executed with multiple shots layered together afterwards in Photoshop.

“I tend to think of [candid photos] more as a practice in spontaneity. I’m a planner at heart and I like feeling prepared when going into a photo shoot.”

Since last October, Sarah has been participating in Flickr’s wildly popular, user-generated 365 Day photography project, which requires users to shoot and upload a different image every day. From her first submission almost a year ago, Sarah has created almost 300 wildly different and inventive images which both stay true to her roots as a photographer and visibly chart her skill level growing. For all the good it’s done, though, it’s still taken its toll on her.

“The 365 project has been absolutely hateful and stressful and so unbelievably rewarding,” she tells us. It is just the perfect project to learn and grow at an astounding rate. But some days really get the better of you. I don’t upload daily anymore due to health issues but I don’t care if it takes me three years. I’m going to finish this project. These days, I upload when I can and don’t when I can’t. It’s a low stress project.”

While she features in the bulk of her own images, Sarah also loves to shoot with her intern Dawn (“She’s a fantastic model and needs no direction.”) and favors “the girls who are willing to do absolutely anything to get the good shot…I like models who are brave and not afraid to try anything.” Her ideal subject, though, is a little more well-known.

“My dream shoot would absolutely be with Lady Gaga. I admire her openness, creativity, and chutzpah. She is the epitome of me of fearless and willingness to go the distance for her art. And really, I think it would just be such a trip.”