Sarah Blesener

Multi-award winning photographer Sarah Blesener tells us the story behind her most recent project, Toy Soldiers, which deals with concepts of "patriotism" and "nationalism" in Russia and United States via military training camps for youth. In this video Sarah takes us through her process of developing, researching, and documenting this year long endeavor. To continue work on this project she recently was awarded the prestigious Alexia Foundation 2017 grant, and the newly established Catchlight Fellowship award.

This interview was conducted by PhotoWings in partnership with The Alexia Foundation.

Sarah Blesener is a documentary photographer based in New York City. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she studied Linguistics and Youth Development at North Central University. She worked as a photographer for the organization Healing Haiti based in Port au Prince, Haiti, covering events surrounding the 2010 earthquake. Upon graduation in 2012, she studied at Bookvar Russian Academy in Minneapolis, concentrating on the Russian language. She is a recent graduate of the Visual Journalism and Documentary Practice program at the International Center of Photography in New York. Her body of work, "Haven", examines the life of youth in the Bronx 15th Congressional District, the poorest district in the United States.

Her latest work revolves around issues of youth movements and culture in Russia, Eastern Europe, and the United States.

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