about kellē
Kelle ("Kell-ee") Sauer was born in upstate New York to a mother who had known poverty and a father with a movable job. Her earliest memories come to her in pictures – snippets of real life recomposed into snapshots never captured. She remembers lamplight, fire and sunsets she couldn’t draw, rose-gold light spilled over crystal snow. She couldn't hold these memories outside of her imagination until her thirteenth Christmas, when she was given a little blue 35mm camera. Her first photo captured a frost that iced the fence around her family’s Illinois farmhouse.
Shaped by her nomadic childhood, Kelle has sorted her life by the familiar, imagining and reimagining her identity in each new home. She learned to find the old in the new and make memories where she had none, traveling the whole world in her own backyard, creating space for her old soul to breathe.
As an entirely self-taught artist, she grounds her dramatic vision in her grandmother’s organic european aesthetic, drawing inspiration with authenticity from high fashion and 18th Century art. Her current work is characterized by a textured, understated elegance that honors real life, real emotion, and the oft-unnoticed little things that make life worth remembering.
KELLĒ LIVES IN A CHARLESTON HOUSE IN CENTRAL CALIFORNIA, MAKING A LIFE WITH HER ATTORNEY HUSBAND, THREE CHILDREN, AND THREE CATS WHO THINK THEY'RE PEOPLE TOO. SHE DRINKS CAPPUCCINOS AND GREEN TEA (THE JASMINE KIND), KEEPS A DAILY JOURNAL, AND PRETENDS THAT TRAVEL MIGHT BE HER FAVORITE THING.
artist biography
Be a little kinder than you have to.
There is a fresh spin on your work, something I’d even venture to call holiness. There is a breath-held-in quality, a transparency…
Marguerite, FRIEND
Thank you for capturing Jason and me (and our friends and family) and for being such a true friend and inspiration throughout this process. I feel so lucky to have found you and fallen in love with your photos. I did not realize when I looked through your blog for the first time that not only do you make beautiful art, you are the deepest and best kind of person, which makes you the best kind of friend. You have helped me find me… and you are a big part of the reason I had fun and kept Jason at the top of my heart and front of my mind. That was why I loved our day.
Michelle, BRIDE
I am so happy to have seen [you] in action... [You take] one person at a time and bring out all her beauty. You can see beyond our moment and our sorrows and bring out that bright and original truth that lies within the people who are lucky enough to stand in front of your camera. A little miracle I witnessed...
Stefania, FRIEND
Fifty years from now, we’ll easily recall the traditional lineups of wedding photos, and despite their beauty, they just don’t seem to capture the joy, awe, and love that you’ve managed to capture in your photos ...
Kate, BRIDE
Thank YOU for capturing our day so beautifully… I don’t think I’ll ever tire of looking at the images from our wedding day. [We] loved our experience with you!
Anne, BRIDE
When I see your photos, I never feel like I am looking at a picture. Your photos capture life so well, I feel that I am instantly transported to that moment and place.
Vanessa, BRIDE
Anyone can take a picture, but Kellē has a gift that enables her to capture emotion on film in a way that few can – using her lens as a canvas on which she paints the full range of feeling that is part of the human experience.
Leeann, BRIDE
It is so hard to put into words how incredible Kellē is. We connected as soon as we spoke, and I couldn’t wait to work with her. Her voice is so soothing; having never taken photos like this before, I felt so nervous, but her voice has an incredible way of putting you at ease.
Working with Kellē wasn’t “work”, it felt like Kellē was always meant to be at our wedding, a friend that we were getting to know during the planning process.
She made our wedding day amazing. She knew everything we wanted without us having to articulate it. She was everywhere capturing the beauty in everything. She let us know if we needed a moment away we could tell everyone we were going to shoot more photos, and we could just take a moment to relax.
Kellē has a vision, and seeing our wedding through her eyes is something that brings me so much joy. She sees things in a way that I never could. The way she sees and captures light is magic. Our wedding photos are a reminder we will have of that forever.
The best thing we did for our wedding was find Kellē and book her, and the only thing I would have done differently is find and book her sooner.
Katrina, BRIDE
oooh, Kellē. I am smitten by it all over again! You captured the moments, the little things, the soft colors, the LIGHT, the relationships – mostly, you captured everyone blissed out with happiness. In the moment, the easy joyful flow of that day carried me along… but I was so blown away by my own amazement that I didn’t realize it was so widespread. They are ALL so over-the-moon happy. And you caught it so I can see. It is such a gift!
Emily, BRIDE
acknowledgements
and for me it will always be this way, walking in the light, remembering being alive together
recommended by
inspired by
