"To me, I was always interested in why people come into bars alone. I have a feeling why. They're looking for a connection, for people to listen to them, for a community .... I was not looking for anything particular except I would mostly only photograph people who were alone in the bar. I was drawn to people for different reasons: their clothes, their hair, their mannerisms, their face, or their mood. I was drawn to each person for a different reason"
For nine years Sarah Stolfa was a bartender at McGlinchey's in Philadelphia while an undergrad. Over the years, she's gotten to know the regulars at this bar and admits "I think if I had just walked into a bar I had no connection with, it would have been a totally different set of pictures.".
I can't help but be drawn to studying the faces of the many folks here and wonder who are they ? What are their dreams ? What happen to them on that day right before they stepped into the bar.
She used a Hasselblad (this was back in 2004 when digital wasn't as widespread) with a flash and photographed one roll per person. Twelve 6x6 frames. Sometimes she'll shoot 3 a night, other times none. All depends on who walked in. With this series, Stolfa won The New York Times Photography Contest for College Students and when she graduated from Drezel University in 2006, she embarked on acquiring a MBA in photography from Yale.
Her book "The Regulars" was published last year.
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