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Michel
Sarda practiced architecture in
Paris, France, for 15 years, during which time he became familiar with
various forms of creative expression, including drawing, writing,
furniture design and photography.
He
moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1984. After he graduated from the New York
Institute of Photography, he started his own art book imprint and
published several photography books on the Phoenix area (the "Valley
of the Sun Trilogy") widely used by businesses and public agencies.
He also released two extensively illustrated monographs on American
artists, California painter Marion Pike and Arizona sculptor John Henry
Waddell.
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Sarda
describes himself as a portrait photographer. In 1997, he initiated the
"Arizona Millennium Trilogy", a series of three books of
portraits. The first and third volumes, Faces of Arizona, dedicated to Arizona artists and their
patrons, released in 1999, and Voices
of Arizona, released in 2005, were the subject of two exhibitions
at the West Valley Art Museum.
His
experience in portraiture translates into an innovative project, the
Self-Image Discovery program, which uses photography in a
psychological context as a remarkably efficient healing tool to rebuild
self-esteem and self-acceptance — to the point that the academic
community is paying attention.
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Sarda's interest in
capturing movement and dance has made him the photographer of choice of
several Arizona dance companies. This work provided materials for several
shows on the theme "Dance: Art
in Motion" — including one at the WVAM in 2003. Noted French
cinematographer Jean Cherasse calls him the "Degas of
photography." Series on dance include Native
Spirit, Shadow Dance, A Day in the Life of a Dancer, Spirit of Dance, etc.
In
the mid-90s, while working on his book on John Waddell, he spent many
hours in the artist's studio, and this is where the concept of his series
"A Sense of Form" was
born — a visual meditation on the architecture of the human form.
Flowers have also captivated Sarda's eye for many years. The discovery of
a rose garden in Scottsdale translated into the series "Spirit
of the Rose" — an homage to ephemerous beauty.
Always
on the lookout for new subjects, themes and models, Sarda, with already
nine books released and several more in the making, is arguably the most
published photographer in Arizona to date. He was nominated to the Arizona
Governor's Arts Awards in 2005. |
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