Valeria Sarto: The elegy of the everyday.
There is a light in Valeria Sarto’s work that emanates not only from the day, but from memory itself. Born in Miami Beach in 1998 and now living between Paris and her hometown, the young photographer cultivates a singular gaze — both delicate and incisive — on the world around her. Her practice, at the crossroads of documentary photography, autofiction, and poetic staging, does not aim to capture reality in its rawness, but to transfigure it into emotional resonance.
Each image is a reminiscence, a suspended moment where the ordinary becomes precious, almost sacred. Far from artifice and dramatic narrative, Sarto composes fragments of life bathed in nostalgia and ambiguity. Objects are imbued with soul, places become echo chambers for muted emotions, and bodies sometimes absent leave an imprint all the more powerful. In her series, love, loss, absence, and desire are not illustrated but surface gently, in the trace of a glance or the fold of a curtain.
Influenced as much by intimate cinema as by analog photography, Sarto works with a sharp sense of composition, grain, and light. She builds an introspective, viscerally feminine body of work that explores memory, vulnerability, and the fragile beauty of disappearing things. Through her lens, the banal becomes a site of revelation — and art, a refuge for emotions that elude language.
Through her current exhibition On Memorabilia at the Hôtel des Académies et des Arts, Valeria Sarto unveils an intimate universe where objects become sensitive vessels of buried stories. Through a series of images that are both delicate and powerful, the artist explores emotional memory and a poetic of detail. A perfect opportunity for Valeria Sarto to take part in our Questionnaire.
Now showing: On Memorabilia until April 20
At the Hôtel des Académies et des Arts
15, rue de la Grande Chaumière, Paris
Instagram : @valeriasarto
Website : www.valeriasarto.com
News: “On Memorabilia” Exhibition until April 20, 2025
Hôtel des Académies et des Arts
15, rue de la Grande Chaumière
75006 Paris
https://hoteldesacademies.fr/#exposition
What was your first photographic trigger?
Valeria Sarto : The darkroom. I learned to take photos on B&W film and how to develop and print them in the darkroom. The process made me fall in love.
The photographer who inspired you?
Valeria Sarto : Vivian Meier.
The image you wish you had taken?
Valeria Sarto : I was driving over the Julia Tuttle bridge to Miami Beach and there was a woman in an old-school silver car, she was probably about 68 years old I imagine. She was smoking a cigarette out her window with bright pink lipstick and lots of eyeliner. The day was perfect, that soft light everywhere. I remember wishing I had my camera and that I wasn’t driving.
The one that moved you the most?
Valeria Sarto : Helmut Newton’s Private Property exhibition at 10 Corso Como in New York City back in 2018.
And the one that made you angry?
Valeria Sarto : Mmmm not one that really comes to mind.
Which photographer changed the world?
Valeria Sarto : Martin Parr.
And which photo changed your world?
Valeria Sarto : Just Martin Parr overall.
What interests you most in a picture?
Valeria Sarto : That it’s a bit goofy and that the composition takes you through an image as you discover new parts of the story it tells.
What was the last photo you took?
Valeria Sarto : A man walking down the street in front of a full royal blue storefront.
A key image in your personal pantheon?
Valeria Sarto : A photo I shot of a tan man in a red speedo on the beach in Rio de Janeiro.
A photographic memory from your childhood?
Valeria Sarto : The backyard at my grandmother’s home.
In your opinion, what quality is needed to be a good photographer?
Valeria Sarto : A balance between knowing how the functions of a camera work (ISO, shutter speed, aperture) and capturing something emotive.
What makes a good photo?
Valeria Sarto : Shows you something you may not have seen.
Who would you like to photograph?
Valeria Sarto : Leonardo DiCaprio.
A must-have photo book?
Valeria Sarto : There’s too many to choose from.
Your childhood camera?
Valeria Sarto : A Vivitar.
The one you use today?
Valeria Sarto : A mix between the classic Canon AE-1, Hasselblad 500cm and Contax 645.
How do you choose your projects?
Valeria Sarto : Heart-led.
How would you describe your creative process?
Valeria Sarto : Focused and peaceful, sometimes erratic.
Do you have an upcoming project that’s close to your heart?
Valeria Sarto : I was commissioned for a book about Miami / South Florida, with a bunch of local photographers. I’m from Miami Beach, so it was really special to be a part of.
Your favorite drug?
Valeria Sarto : Weed.
The best way for you to disconnect?
Valeria Sarto : Floating in the ocean and roadtripping through national parks.
What is your personal relationship with images?
Valeria Sarto : I love all kinds of images.
Who would you like to be photographed by?
Valeria Sarto : Arturo Bamboo.
Your latest folly?
Valeria Sarto : Playing scratch offs and believing I’ll be a lucky one and win 50k.
An image to illustrate a new banknote?
Valeria Sarto : Stars, moons and planets.
If you hadn’t been a photographer?
Valeria Sarto : No idea.
Your greatest professional extravagance?
Valeria Sarto : Traveling to take pictures.
What question might unsettle you?
Valeria Sarto : It might be hard to unsettle me.
What was the last thing you did for the first time?
Valeria Sarto : Moved to a new country.
What city, country or culture do you dream of discovering?
Valeria Sarto : All around Australia and New Zealand.
The place you never tire of?
Valeria Sarto : Miami Beach – my home.
Your biggest regret?
Valeria Sarto : When I was little, I took acting classes and they wanted to fly me to LA. My mom thought it was a scam so I never went. It probably was a scam but it would’ve been cool to go to LA anyways.
On social networks, do you prefer Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or Snapchat, and why?
Valeria Sarto : Instagram, photo-based and the OG (after Facebook but still)
Color or B&W?
Valeria Sarto : I use color more but I find more charm in B&W.
Daylight or artificial light?
Valeria Sarto : Daylight.
Which city do you find most photogenic?
Valeria Sarto : Anywhere that feels like it hasn’t modernized.
If God existed, would you ask him to pose for you, or would you prefer a selfie with him?
Valeria Sarto : I’d ask him to pose for me.
If I could organize your ideal dinner party, who would be at the table?
Valeria Sarto : Martin Parr, Kate Moss, William Eggelston, David Lynch, Man Ray, Vivian Maier, Sarah Meister, Anna Wintour.
The image that represents for you the current state of the world?
Valeria Sarto : There’s definitely a better photo to put here, but I’ll use an image I have from my exhibition ’On Memorabilia’ : ‘Fed Up in Paris’.
What do you think is missing in today’s world?
Valeria Sarto : More spirituality & self-awareness.
If you had to start all over again?
Valeria Sarto : I wouldn’t.
What would you like people to say about you afterwards?
Valeria Sarto : That they felt good after meeting me, and comfortable to be themselves around me.
The most important thing people need to know about you?
Valeria Sarto : I’m not the person that “hates everyone,” I generally love all kinds of people.
Any last words?
Valeria Sarto : There’s beauty in everything, even the ugly stuff.
