Sandra Lee Kaplan

Sandra Kaplan is a photographer based in the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado. The artist's gift with her cameras, consistently sui generis, has evolved for 40 years and continues to dance on a daring precipice of light, shade, and color that dazzles, excites, provokes, and inspires. Her peerless knowledge and love affair with the camera allows her to go where others fear to tread with experimentation.

Kaplan is always reaching for something new for the sake of discovery. Whether she is discovering Spirit Bears of British Columbia, wild horses of Colorado, Moroccan stallions, printing on challenging surfaces like handmade paper, photographic papers, canvas, aluminum sheeting, she is looking to push her own limits. When it comes to her subject matter, her preference -- even passion -- is for the animals, especially horses. Regardless of the country she's in or the breed, Sandy is emotionally moved by the power and strength of horses. Whether they are standing still or on the run, Sandy earns her way into their world and aims her lenses in search of their true character, capturing unique insights that portray beauty and individuality. Often placing herself in potentially dangerous situations, Sandy has been amongst stampeding wild horses, and in one-on-one "conversations" with a prized Lucitano Stallion. Her decades of experience as a fashion photographer ensure that every encounter is captured by the appropriate f-stop and shutter speed.  The result: spontaneous images that lead the viewer out into the desert heat or cool morning fog to behold extraordinary equine magic.

She will tell you it has been a long and resplendent journey, beginning in Paris, France in 1970 as a high fashion photographer covering the major fashion houses of Europe. This led her to the major motion picture industry, Columbia, Warner Bros. and Paramount, 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 a photograph is my mission."

In 1996 Kaplan took her journey and expertise to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado seeking freedom to experiment with life beyond human. Her cameras became her paintbrushes and the results 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 and to teach, which she is now doing part time at the Red Brick Center for the Arts, an Associate of Aspen Art Museum, and Colorado Mountain College, as well as in Door County, Wisconsin.