Sarah Oates Lanarkshire, United Kingdom
I'm a photographer based in Glasgow, working with film and alternative processes to explore memory, identity, and quiet moments.
My practice often involves self-portraiture and experimental techniques like cyanotype and film soup, creating images that feel personal, textured, and slightly dreamlike.
With a background in genetics and currently studying data science, I'm interested in how photography can hold space for both observation and emotion.
My work is shaped by personal experience, as well as the influence of films, books, and visual culture. I'm often drawn to atmosphere, symbolism, and the quiet surreal.
Photography began as an escape from my day job as a technical analyst, and over time it has become a way to process the world more intuitively. I'm especially interested in analogue and experimental processes, where imperfections become part of the image’s meaning. For me, photography isn’t about documenting reality but about interpreting it. It is a space for transformation, reflection, and vulnerability.
Artwork
Blue, cyanotype print, 2024
Held, Darkroom print from spliced 35mm negatives, 2024
Closet, Medium format film, 2024
Ghost, Wet plate collodion, 2025
Torn, Medium format film, 2024
Double, Medium format film, 2025
Red, Medium format film, 2024
Projects and exhibitions
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Stay Seen Collective, Resilience in Colour13/06/2025 — ongoing Resilience in Colour is a vibrant and thought-provoking exhibition celebrating the healing power of creativity and the quiet strength found in everyday moments. Through artworks that range from bold and bright to soft and subtle, this collection reveals how colour helps us heal, connect with others, and express what often remains... [Read more] |
Six Foot Gallery, Glasgow | Details |
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Portrait, International Photography Exhibition10/05/2025 — ongoing My work was selected for the Portrait exhibition at the Glasgow Gallery of Photography, which brought together a wide range of contemporary portrait practices. I submitted a wet plate collodion portrait of a fellow photographer, created during a course at Street Level Photoworks. The process was completely new to me, and I was drawn to the... [Read more] |
The Glasgow Gallery of Photography, Glasgow | Details |
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Liminal10/12/2024 — 10/01/2025 Phantasmal Gallery is an online gallery dedicated to the celebration of horror, oddities and all things surreal. My work was featured in Liminal, an online group exhibition exploring the thresholds between reality and the surreal, the known and the uncanny. For this show, I submitted a series of Polaroid-style images created with green... [Read more] |
Phantasmal Gallery, Online | Details |