Hi everyone!

My name is Matea Šarić and I’m a director and photographer currently living in Rijeka (Croatia) with my boyfriend and a dog (a ten year old beagle) where I’m finishing my last year of MA studies Media arts and practices (photography) at the Academy of applied arts. I had also obtained a BA in movie and TV direction at the Academy of drama in Zagreb before that.

I love fashion, instant photography, polaroids, vintage finds and rummaging through second-hand stores, experimenting with disposable cameras, street style, and all of it started with a deep love towards street and fashion photography that has evolved into something completely different along the way. At the end of my studies in Zagreb and going back to my birth town Šibenik, I decided to open a photo and fashion blog – Smile, Snap, Sparkle. It has become almost completely fashion-oriented because I’ve always had an interest in fashion and playing with combinations, matching patterns, colours and often incompatible items first and foremost for the fun of it. I’ve always looked for pieces I couldn’t find on every other person in the city: different, special, with a certain story. Being a huge talker and a visual type, I guess it was natural for me to join the big boom of fashion blogs. And I’ve never regretted it.

The blog has never had strict content guidelines – besides the usual style posts, there are always little things about my life, making of random projects I’m working on at the moment, movie reviews etc. – everything that I’m interested in is also part of the blog, with the aim of creating a cosy and friendly atmosphere like we’re sitting on someone’s couch at home and talking about what inspired us that day. I’m trying to write every single day, except when I really can’t make it or when I’m in a not gonna happen today mood because my blog is something I’m very passionate about and, being my own, I’m striving to keep it completely authentic and I post accordingly.

I’m influenced by street style, music (more than anything), movies, weather changes, people, the sea, but mostly everything that happens to me in life; that’s the main motivator of everything I do and these events / meetings / cheerful and sad moments inspire stories, photographs and projects. And that’s how every day new posts on the blog get created, without huge pre-plans. One of my favourite projects is entitled 365 Polaroids. I started it in February 2015. like some kind of revolt against our need to mask our everyday lives into something perfect and very often fake.

With a polaroid camera I’m trying to capture tiny moments that can make our day amazing and fill us with positivity, but which get lost because we live too fast.

In the beginning I challenged myself to make a photo a day which, considering the nature of polaroid, meant also imperfections we’re not used seeing in the world of digital photography (like problems with the exposure or flash light that is too strong or too weak),  but that’s why I find it charming. I’ve learnt how to slow down my process of working and thinking and how to single out singnificant things, and that is very important when you’re working with an expensive medium that’s not so easy to find. When I’m done with the 365 cycle I won’t start the same project all over again because I have some other works in mind, using polaroids too.

Actually, I can’t even imagine myself not shooting with the polaroid every single day. It becomes like an obsession; just you and a picture materializing in front of your eyes. Priceless.

My last academic year has begun and I hope I’ll have enough time and support to make my final thesis exactly how I pictured it, and after that who knows what will come and where I’ll be. I’ve never worried too much about the future because I’ve learnt that life is unpredictable, but I’m certain that I’d like to continue working as a freelancer and have all three fields of interests overlap – both video, photography and fashion.