Sandy Coburn is an award-winning American fine art photographer based in The Hague, whose work explores landscapes, wildlife and cultures through vivid colour, light and carefully considered composition. Largely self-taught, she developed her photographic practice through family influence and more than a decade working in global communications and humanitarian storytelling across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
Her images combine photographic precision with a painterly quality, often transforming real places and fleeting moments into immersive studies of wonder, memory and connection. Ethical storytelling and conservation remain central to her practice, whether she is photographing glacial landscapes, remote wildlife or culturally significant environments.
In this interview, Coburn discusses the experiences that shaped her visual language, the role of colour and symbolism within her work, and the research-led process behind her photography.
Are you self-taught, or did you undertake formal artistic training?
I’m largely self-taught, though I owe a lot to my family. My uncle, Ron McCarty, is a watercolourist who focuses on wildlife and nature, themes that still sit at the core of my own work. He and my parents made sure art was part of my life early on through regular trips to Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum. That’s where I first fell in love with East Asian art, including a Kwan Yin Buddha that sparked a lifelong interest in Buddhist and Taoist thought and spirituality within art. My sister, Amanda Adkison, studied photography formally and taught me the technical side, including equipment, manual shooting and composition.
The rest came from over a decade in global communications and humanitarian storytelling. I had access to a huge, underused photo archive, and I learned that the right image could make a technical story land emotionally. That work led USAID to send me across three continents to document local changemakers, and that’s where I really learned to photograph: working across language and cultural barriers, earning trust quickly and making sure people felt proud. I still think of the people I photograph as the heroes of their own stories. I’m still learning from every project. This work gave me the skills to explore the world more deeply and discover the landscapes, wildlife and cultures that inspire me as an artist.
How would you define your visual language or conceptual approach?
My visual language is rooted in poetic minimalism, vivid colour and a spirit of wonder. I treat colour as a protagonist, an emotional register and sometimes the subject itself. Light, symmetry and form are how I build the rest of the image around it.
I’m drawn to the extraordinary that hides within reality, and I want my images to make people slow down rather than simply glance. There’s a painterly quality to much of my work, balanced against real photographic precision. If the image works, it should feel less like a photograph and more like a small escape, something that interrupts a bad day and hands you a little childlike wonder instead.
Can you describe your creative process from conception to completion?
It starts well before I pick up the camera. I’ll spend months, sometimes a year, researching a location, including the light, weather, season and the people I’ll need to work with, while building whatever technical skills the shoot demands. Photographing the Northern Lights in Iceland meant learning to work with a black sky and a green aurora almost from scratch. Photographing wildlife has meant working with ecologists and other photographers to approach animals respectfully and from a safe distance. My background in international development shapes all of this. I try to enter every environment with curiosity and treat the engagement as ethical first and aesthetic second.
On location, I move slowly and wait for a place to show me its rhythm. I shoot a lot, intuitively, until something clicks between instinct and precision.
Editing is fairly restrained. I’m protecting the scene’s actual vibrancy rather than manufacturing a new one. Printing is where it really comes together: light moves through the piece, and the image shifts as you move around it, which a screen simply can’t replicate. Throughout all of it, I’m almost always listening to music, and it shapes the work more than people probably realise.
Does narrative, symbolism or storytelling play a role within your work?
Storytelling is at the centre of everything I do. It started in humanitarian photography and has carried into a quieter, more contemplative form in my fine art work. Most of my images sit inside a bigger narrative: a teal lake, a seal pup’s gaze or the way light falls on a street and reveals something about the place.
Symbolism runs through much of it, from glacial water as a representation of continuity and change, to prayer flags as collective devotion and architectural symmetry as our search for meaning. I want each photograph to invite the viewer into a story, sometimes obvious and sometimes left open, where the line between a moment and a memory blurs a little.
Which artists have most influenced you, historically or contemporarily, and why?
My influences span photography, fine art, music, fashion and philosophy. In landscape photography, Ansel Adams’ conservation legacy and Cath Simard’s emotional intimacy have shaped my approach. Matt Payne and Max Rive influence my pursuit of technical mastery and dreamlike atmosphere, while Edwin Mooijaart’s painterly precision speaks to my own interest in composition and light.
In wildlife photography, Cristina Mittermeier, Paul Nicklen, Ami Vitale and Andy Parkinson have shown me how beauty and ethical urgency can coexist, and how to capture both grandeur and intimacy.
My portrait and documentary sensibilities are guided by Robin Hammond, Zanele Muholi and Deana Lawson, artists who use their craft to bear witness and hold space for dignity and presence.
Beyond photography, Yayoi Kusama’s immersive use of colour and repetition, Laurie Anderson’s narrative environments, and the philosophical influence of Jean-Denis Attiret and Japanese and Chinese landscape painters all inform my practice, as do fashion icons such as Yves Saint Laurent, Björk and David Bowie. Music, especially synth and electronic music, provides the emotional soundscape I seek to evoke in my work.
What personal, cultural or environmental influences shape your practice?
One of the most pivotal moments shaping my artistic practice occurred in Jiuzhaigou, China. Standing before the dazzling glacial pools, where teal waters mirrored the fiery autumn leaves, I experienced a sense of awe and presence that felt both ancient and immediate. That encounter revealed to me how colour and light could become a language of wonder, a way to connect deeply with the world and invite others to see its beauty anew.
I also draw from my time living and working across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, where the ethereal light and history resonate with my early inspirations. My career in humanitarian communications fostered a deep respect for collaboration, ethical storytelling and the importance of seeing through local eyes.
Environmentally, I am guided by a devotion to the world’s living tapestry, including its glacial waters, ancient forests, cultural spaces and animal lives. Each photograph is an invitation to care for these wonders, not as distant spectacles but as living presences deserving protection.
Where is your studio based, and how does the space inform your creativity?
I do not have a traditional studio space, as my practice is inherently nomadic and digital. Much of my work happens on location, whether I’m photographing glacial lakes, vibrant city streets or remote wildlife habitats. When I’m not in the field, I work from my laptop, editing and planning from wherever I find myself in the world. This flexibility is essential to my process, allowing me to remain present in the environments I photograph and fully immersed in the creative act. My ‘studio’ is ultimately the world itself.
I am based in The Hague, the Netherlands, where I feel connected to both the European art and humanitarian communities. The space itself is both a sanctuary and a launchpad: a place for reflection, editing and planning, but also a gateway to the world outside.
Do you have any rituals or rhythms that anchor your studio practice?
My practice is anchored by the ritual of slow looking, taking time to sit with images, sketches or new ideas without rushing to produce.
When editing or printing, I often listen to synth and electronic music, which helps evoke the emotional atmosphere I seek in my work. When photographing, I move meditatively through spaces, waiting patiently for the moment when light, colour and meaning align. This rhythm of attentive presence is essential because it allows wonder and intuition to guide my creative decisions. I hope that someday viewers of my art will be accompanied by a soundscape, but for now, I try to give them a hint of what I have in rotation by including music with my Instagram posts.
I try to meditate daily. It helps to ground me and open me up to what I need to see in my art so that I can capture and share the image I want people to experience, the one that will create a moment of awe and wonder. David Lynch’s book Catching the Big Fish has also influenced how I incorporate meditation into my artistic process.
What bodies of work or projects are you currently developing?
I’m participating in several group exhibitions this autumn, so far in Germany, Italy and the United States, but I’m looking to expand my autumn exhibition schedule. Curators can contact me via my website, sandycoburnphotography.com, or on Instagram if they are interested in featuring my work.
I’m planning to launch several series of existing work on my website, ranging from the tropical birds of Costa Rica and the Tsingy formations of Madagascar to cultural photography from the Netherlands, Spain and Italy.
For my next photo shoots, I am hoping to continue my glacial landscapes in Triglav National Park, Slovenia. Culturally, I’m eager to visit India’s Pink City, Jaipur, and I would love to continue photographing coastal and marine wildlife, especially marine mammals and birds.
I continue to accept commissions from ethical brands, NGOs and travel organisations seeking to tell their stories through a lens of wonder, empathy and conservation.
Where can collectors encounter or acquire your work?
My artwork is now available on Shopify at https://sandycoburnphotography.myshopify.com/, where collectors can acquire limited-edition prints that I personally inspect, sign and certify with a certificate of authenticity. I take the purchase of my artwork very seriously, and I welcome collectors to contact me for consultations to customise the works for their homes.
I also collaborate with galleries and interior designers on custom installations, and I welcome commissions from collectors, brands and organisations seeking unique, site-specific works. For details of current exhibitions and opportunities to view my art in person, please visit my website and connect with me through my social media channels.
