Franco-Spanish photographer, poet & filmmaker. Born in Paris, she grew up between the Mediterranean area and the Pyrenees. Self-taught photographer ; at 15 she got her first analogue camera, an FM2 Nikon, with which she began to take her first black & white photographs that she learnt to develop in ¨the laboratory¨ of her home.
« The poetic gaze, is what leads me to manifest the subtle world of the untouchable, of the invisible. In photography, the poetic imagery transforms itself in a receptive instrument of the absolute and of the incomprehensible totality of the universe. Like a transversal force that captures the essential ; photography can capture that instant of infiniteness… »
At 20, she arrived to the US. She lived in Michigan and Oregon, where she graduated with a B.A in media arts / journalism.
From photography, originated the impulse to explore movement within and around the subject. In 2000, in Vietnam, she directed her first cinematographic project to co-direct with one of the most important US eminences in Asian studies, Professor Jeffrey Barlow, the documentary film Vietnam Jade of Sorrow ¨ ; an educational film with a synthesis between contemporary and traditional Vietnam.
Passionate about dance, she collaborated on a second film project as a second camera with a US film production company that was travelling to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to produce a documentary film about the old tango school of ´milongueros`.
From there on, without stopping photographing, she has produced as a director, camera and editor ; short films, music videos and documentary films.
In Portland, OR, she met a poet, writer and painter, who influenced her artistic career. It was the unofficial laureate poet Walt Curtis from Portland, OR. He is, the legendary ¨street poet¨, author of ¨Mala Noche¨, which was the novel that inspired film director Gus Van Sant´s first film.
Together, they have recited poetry at the radio station as well as in multiple events. Curtis, who has had a radio program ¨The Talking Earth for 40 years at KBOO in Portland, OR, has referred to Guitart as ¨One of the greatest voices I ever heard
He has invited her to his radio station in many occasions to recite her own poetry as well as well known Spanish and French poets.
Walt Curtis influence, as well as her father´s influence by reciting poetry with him as a young girl ; has driven her to use her voice with voice-over companies for commercial projects, as well as for artistic endeavors to which she refers as ¨Visual poetry¨. The need for the connection with nature as well as poetry that Curtis and Guitart shared in common, inspired them to a a collaboration for the making of the artistic-ecological documentary film ¨Salmon Poet¨.
Being the child of parents from different nationalities, has integrated from a young age in her existential and artistic expression, a richness of cultural and linguistic diversity.
Her most intimate work, it´s characterized by fusing together the word and the poetic imagery. Intrepid traveller, her journeys have been a source of great inspiration for her writings and photography ; material, that she considers as an ethereal bridge sculpting itself from one shore to the next ; uniting consciousness of different realities and poetry of the hearts.
Her photography, articles and interviews, have been published with cultural magazines, local newspapers and photography magazines. Her work, was recently chosen by the prestigious photography magazine, Black & White Magazine, from California, and the photography and poetry magazine, LIGHT, from New York.
Most of her journeys, have been in solitary, like crossing Europe with her van from Spain to Türkiye, where she travelled for three months.
« To travel alone, nearby or far away, it´s the most direct way to meet with oneself, to rediscover your most intimate tempo and bare of all conditions ; be naked in front of oneself. Alone, it´s easier to let oneself go by symbols and signs on the way or straighten a direction with a clear objective.
Often, without planning for it, I find myself in the situation in which I travel alone to an unknown place where nobody knows me, as if something in me insisted to remind me that without the other´s gaze or listening, I am nothing. At the same time, I am always fortunate to meet wonderful people on the way, encounters that help the journey flow with meaningful nourishment and experiences.»
On her second trip to Türkiye, she travelled for four months with the intention to find out for herself, what was the real situation of refugees from Syria and other countries. From Türkiye, she travelled to Lesbos, Greece for the investigation of the situation and living conditions of refugees in refugee camps. This effort resulted in the completion of a documentary film ; ¨Adieksodo¨ or ¨Dead End¨.
In México, she has travelled alone five times. This is a country she feels it keeps calling her back, mostly for her own interest in shamanism and ancestral knowledge of healing techniques and medicinal plants.
Sabrina, contains an intense passion towards nature´s criatures, the forest, the rivers, the mountains, or to what in her poetry she refers to as ¨The Temple of Nature where the soul renews itself¨.
The notion of the journey no matter the place or the distance, it´s what leads her on her every day life to sharpen her perceptions to new awakenings and sensitize her senses.
Sabrina Guitart, continues her way as a photographer, filmmaker, poet, writer and an aspiring novelist, but above all, a greater Humanist.
