Sarah Benkiran

Born in Tangier, Morocco in 1986

q: You mentioned in your website about your obsession with dreams. Any interesting dreams lately?
a: The other day I dreamt it was summer. I was living in a beautiful house built in the middle of the ocean, all surrounded by water. Windows were open and had white curtains that were gently moved by the wind, and the blinding sunlight made everything inside glow. I jumped in the sea from one of the windows and I swam for a while. The colors of this dream were astonishingly beautiful, I still can see those colors in my head. I remember that in the next scene I am lying on the floor, holding so tight someone I am deeply in love with, but I never reach to see his face neatly, so he remains unknown. When I woke up I was still mesmerized by the scenario of this dream, the feelings I experimented were so intense, everything reached perfection in that moment.

q: Do your dreams influence the aesthetic of your photographs?
a: Absolutely. In some of my dreams I see the most appealing color palettes I could ever have imagined, I live the most surrealistic stories and I can visit places that only exist in my subconscious. After having an intense dream I usually remain disturbed for some hours, in the most pleasant sense of the term.

q: Do you lucid dream? Do you keep a dream diary?
a: Yes I have lucid dreams from time to time. It’s a very special kind of situation. I feel like my very own voyeaur, it’s like looking at your own reflection in a mirror you aren’t standing in front of. Sometimes I am aware of my control over the situation and how do I manipulate the course of events, other times, I am a mere spectator watching a film. But in any case, there’s always an uncontrollable inertia, a third element, that makes it impossible to control how all will finally end. So even if I know that I am in fact dreaming, sometimes my dream “fools me”, and I think this happens when it’s so beautiful what I see that I make the effort to believe it, and I lose my control on purpose, in order to fully enjoy it. It’s all quite hard to explain, isn’t it?

I don’t have a dream diary, actually I don’t have any kind of diary, I’m a messy girl and I write down my ideas just on pieces of paper that always get lost. But I think about them from time to time and tell them to my family and closest friends, so I collect them in my memory just as I collect anecdotes.

q: Any dreamy music to recommend?
a: I like many types of music, but before going to sleep I play some of these songs, they evoke many hidden feelings, specially the first one, which is my favorite.

“Love remembered” by Wojciech Kilar, from the OST of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
“The living sculptures of Pemberley”, “The secret life of Daydreams”, “Your hands are cold” and “Darcy’s letter” by Dario Marianelli, from the OST of Pride and Prejudice (2005).
Georges Delerue - “Theme de Camille”.
Maria Callas: “Vissi d’arte” (Tosca, Puccini), “Si, mi chiamano Mimi” (La Boheme, Puccini).
The OST of Edward Scissorhands, by Danny Elfman.
Abel Korzeniowski - “Stillness of the mind”
La Crem - “Mano (nono song)”

her website.