Sara Blokland (b. 1969, the NL) is a visual artist, independent researcher, and curator with an interest in the complexities of photography as a means of representation. Her work explores the ambiguous relationship between photography, archives, and (post)colonial histories, viewing it as an ongoing process that reshapes and distorts our understanding of the past in the present.
Blokland graduated Cum Laude from the Rietveld Academy with a BA in Theatre design and Photography. She holds an MFA from the Sandberg Institute and an MA in Film and Photographic Studies from Leiden University. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is part of several collections, including the Stedelijk Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Netherlands Photo Museum, and The Hague Municipal Museum.
Blokland is the photographer and editor of the artist books van Waarde [Of Value] (2008) and The Surinam Police Band (2009). She is also the co-editor and initiator of the book Unfixed Photography and Post-Colonial Perspectives in Contemporary Art (2012). Blokland has worked as a curator and researcher, on various Dutch exhibitions, including Unfixed Photography (2009), SrefidensiPhoto (2015–2017), and Contemporary Caribbean Perspectives (2020).
In addition to her curatorial and research work, Blokland also teaches at the Art Academy Utrecht (HKU) and is a lecturer at the minor “Creative Strategies for Societal Change” at Leiden University. Currently, she is a PhD candidate at Leiden University and a research associate at the Research Center for Material Culture (RCMC) at the Wereldmuseum, where she is conducting research for her project 'A Human copy of Violence: Re-imagining colonial narratives of trauma through the (Post)colonial museum concept and photographic production of (A)lif/ve-Size Figures.