Sandra Lee Kaplan
Sandra Kaplan’s work has developed over her 40 years as a professional photographer. Her work reflects light, shade and color that dazzles, excites, provokes and inspires her students and collectors alike. Her knowledge and love affair with the camera allow her to go where others fear to tread. Her gifts include not only an eye for beauty, but also the urge to experiment, creating exquisite images that delight the senses and evoke deep passion within the viewer.
Modestly, she will tell you that it has been a long resplendent journey beginning in Hollywood, California in the late 60’s, and indeed was the first woman allowed into the film industry as a photographer on set. Continuing her work in Paris, France in the 70’s covering the major fashion houses and magazines of Europe, gaining a reputation as a “Fashion Photographer”.
Hollywood called again, which led her back to Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros. and Paramount Studios, photographing some of the biggest stars, producers and directors of the era. Many of her photographs remain the timeless images of Hollywood’s most famous. She says of her portrait photography, “I never set out to simply take a photo, creating an image is my mission.”
In 1996 Kaplan took her journey and expertise to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado seeking freedom to experiment. Her cameras became her paintbrushes and produced results beyond even her own expectations. Her shows in Colorado and New York have made her work sought after by collectors. The natural evolution of a gift such as hers is to share, to teach. She has taught at The Red Brick Center for the Arts, an Associate of Aspen Art Museum, and Colorado Mountain College, at various campus as well as The Peninsula School of Art in Door County, Wisconsin. Of teaching she confesses, “It is the most excitement I’ve ever known, watching students come to life, coming to love the camera and the sheer joy of what it can do.”