SARA MEINZ
Photographer · Vigo, Galicia
Antakly Projects · 2026
Sara Meinz
Candid, playful, tender — finding capital-letter meaning in the everyday
"If my pictures were words, they would all be in capital letters."
Sara Meinz approaches a photograph the way a novelist approaches a sentence — with the sense that something ordinary, looked at long enough and in the right light, becomes irreducible. Born in Vigo in 1996 with a background in cinematography, her images are candid and playful, rich in colour, and possessed of what one can only describe as a tenderness of attention.
She shoots piles of bricks and wildflowers and human silhouettes. She wanders alone with a camera, introverted and unhurried, reading the landscape for the visual puzzles it hides in plain sight. Recently she has been looking outward — toward portraiture, toward the collective, toward narratives that span series rather than single frames.
Back in her hometown of Vigo after time away, she has been shortlisted for the Palm Photo Prize 2022, selected for Futures Photography 2021 and Fresh Eyes Talent 2021, featured on Booooooom, and published by Pomegranate Press. Her clients span from the Wall Street Journal and Monocle to Zara and Samsung. We spoke with her about process, uncertainty, and why the pandemic quietly changed what her work is for.
01 · Inspirations
What are your greatest inspirations or influences?
Inspiration can come from anywhere, really — from a bike ride to the music I listen to or the books I read. Lately, I've found hugely inspiring the work of Sam Contis in Deep Springs, reading East of Eden, and the films of Chloé Zhao, to name some specifics.
02 · Process
Tell us a bit about your creative process.
I guess my creative process has been shooting lots of bad pictures. I would let them rest and, months later, go back to the archive to see if I might find one picture that I liked enough to share. But while in lockdown, I delved into photobooks and rediscovered the power of editing and sequencing a body of work instead of making single pictures as I had been doing. So now I'm looking forward to creating narratives within photography projects.
Currently I'm working on a series that reflects on the frustration and feeling of uncertainty caused by the current crisis.
I rediscovered the power of editing and sequencing a body of work — instead of making single pictures.
— Sara Meinz
03 · The World
How has this year changed your creativity, or how you see the world moving forward?
Civilisation has been turning very individualistic over the past few years. Nevertheless, the pandemic has reminded us that we must act and think as a whole. So my creativity per se hasn't changed, but the idea behind what I aim to do has evolved from "personal" work to something more human-inclined.
Society has been frequently one of my subjects, though I rarely include people in my photographs. As an introvert, it's easy for me to wander alone with a camera, taking pictures of the landscape and daily scenes. But I look forward to working more closely with people and perhaps taking more portraits.
04 · Icons
Who do you consider to be an icon of our time?
Altruistic people.
05 · The Art World
Do you think the art world needs to change, and if so, how can it be improved?
Art always had the ability to drive our eyes towards topics that deserve more awareness. We are not only facing the pandemic but other important issues — climate change and, still, inequality and racism. Therefore, art and the art world should represent the change we need to see and trace the path to follow. As a starting point: by leaving space for the underrepresented and exposing the environmental consequences.
06 · Wellbeing
What does wellbeing mean to you?
To me, it's about being grateful for what I already have — things that we might overlook every day, such as having food on the plate or access to clean water. And then trying each day to be a better person, living as peacefully as I can, doing what I enjoy the most.
Referenced & Revered
Photographer
Sam Contis
Deep Springs — a body of work that shows how landscape and portrait can become the same thing.
Literature
East of Eden
Steinbeck's epic on family, land, and the choice between good and evil. A lesson in narrative scale.
Cinema
Chloé Zhao
Nomadland, The Rider — documentary tenderness in fiction form. Landscapes that hold people like memory.
Artist Statement
"Sara approaches photography as a personal language that can express more easily what is often beyond words. Playing with light and the particular characteristics of her subjects, she explores the landscape of the everyday — looking for visual puzzles and hidden messages in the ordinary."
— Pomegranate Press
Prizes & Selections
Palm Photo Prize 2022
Shortlist
Futures Photography 2021
Selected
Fresh Eyes Talent 2021
Selected
Photographer Spotlight
Booooooom · 2020
Exhibitions
Palm Photo Prize Exhibition
London
Fresh Eyes Exhibition
Rotterdam
Publications
Playfulness
Pomegranate Press
Nothing Left But Healing
Pomegranate Press
Selected Clients
