Artist, photographer and creative director Sarah Bahbah is giving Marie Claire an exclusive look at her inspiring book collection! Sarah opens up about her journey as a creative, the books that changed her life, and an in-depth look at her new photo book "Dear Love."
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00:00Hello, welcome to my office.
00:02My name is Sarah Baffa.
00:04I'm a visual artist, a writer, a director, a photographer.
00:09I kind of dabble in all creative fields and I love it.
00:12I am so excited to show you my books.
00:14This is Marie Claire's Shelf Portrait.
00:21Okay, so first up we have Happy Hour by Marlo Granados.
00:27This book is about two young girls
00:29who moved to New York with pennies
00:31and they somehow manifest their way
00:33through some really beautiful situations.
00:36I loved reading this book because it reminds me of my youth
00:41and when I first moved to New York
00:44and I was trying to make ends meet
00:46and somehow I would end up
00:47in the craziest situations as well.
00:49And I think it's just such a light,
00:51beautiful coming of age story.
00:53If you want a light read
00:55and you feel like getting out of your head,
00:56this book is for you.
00:58Next up is one of my favorite poetry books ever,
01:01Khalil Gibran's The Prophet.
01:04He is a Lebanese poet.
01:07He was absolutely brilliant
01:09and he left such a mark on the world
01:12for the way he spoke on the human experience
01:15and love and pain and friendship
01:18and self-knowledge and teaching.
01:19And this guy, are you kidding me?
01:25My heart, this book taught me
01:27that pain is something we should embrace.
01:31All the feelings that we experience as humans
01:33is something we should embrace
01:35and celebrate and enjoy the burn
01:38whenever you're feeling bad about yourself,
01:40whenever you're in darkness,
01:42pick up this book and you'll feel seen,
01:45you'll feel loved.
01:46I promise you, read this book.
01:49Next one is a really special one to me.
01:53It's A River Dies a Thirst by Mahmoud Darwish.
01:57He is, or was, sorry, a Palestinian resistance poet.
02:02This book really captures his experience
02:06having lived in occupied Palestine
02:08and it's haunting, it's powerful.
02:12My dad and my grandparents, they're all from Palestine.
02:15And so when I read this book,
02:17I really feel like it gives words to their experiences
02:20of having been displaced from their homes.
02:23I really feel like he dreamed for my family
02:26and he gave us all a voice.
02:28And so I highly recommend reading this book.
02:31This next book, ugh, the way it sent me.
02:37Okay, so I read Attached by Amir Levine
02:42and Rachel Heller a few years ago.
02:44It was at the top end of 2021
02:48and I was grieving a relationship
02:50that I never wanted to end,
02:52but I had to for my sanity.
02:54And when I read Attached,
02:57I actually learned for the first time
02:59that I have an anxious attachment style
03:02and I've been consistently dating avoidance.
03:05And so what this book did to me was clear my mind
03:09and it taught me the tools that I needed
03:12to set healthy boundaries in my relationship
03:16and look out for the smoking guns and the red flags
03:19and notice when you are potentially entering
03:23an anxious and avoidant trap.
03:24Read this book, I love it.
03:27The next book that I recommend for everyone
03:30is The Drama of the Gifted Child.
03:34This book is by Alice Miller
03:36and when she speaks about the gift,
03:38she's actually referring to the gift of apathy and numbing.
03:43When I read this book, I started therapy immediately.
03:47I'm not even kidding.
03:48I got sober, I started making really good,
03:51healthy changes to my life
03:53in order to start to feel the world that I live in
03:58and not numb myself
04:01because I realized I'd been stuck
04:02in survival mode for so long.
04:04This next one, I actually had to sit down for
04:06because it's really special to me,
04:09but it's also really, really heavy.
04:11It's my own book called Dear Love.
04:15I actually just finished it
04:17and have launched it into the world.
04:20It's 10 years of my art
04:23and it's a lifetime of storytelling.
04:26It took me one year of intense labor last year
04:28to get this done.
04:30It's quite massive.
04:31It's 421 pages
04:34and it features all of my art,
04:37all of the series that I've ever done
04:39and for the first time, I kind of dive into each series
04:42and what they represent
04:44whilst also sharing experiences about my life
04:47and my childhood
04:49and the person that I've become today.
04:51What book have I read most in my life?
04:55Definitely this one,
04:57Practicing the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.
04:59I've been reading this since I was 19.
05:02So for a really long time now,
05:05it's just such a great reminder
05:06to stay in the present moment
05:08and everything that happens in the future
05:10happens right now
05:12and everything that happens in the past
05:14happens right now.
05:15So right now is all that matters.
05:18I buy most of my books from BookSoup in West Hollywood.
05:22Yeah, I love that place.
05:24I get a coffee, I go, I spend ages in there.
05:27I pick up three books.
05:28I only ever end up reading one of them
05:29but yeah, definitely BookSoup.
05:32My favorite childhood book
05:34is The Missing Piece Meets the Big L.
05:37It's by Shel Silverstein
05:39and I actually didn't read it as a child.
05:41I read it as an adult
05:43but I just love how it took me back
05:48to that place of being young
05:50and I think adults should read children books more often
05:55because the message is always so pure
05:58and there's such great reminders
06:02of our core and our essence.
06:04This book is so cute.
06:05Please read it.
06:07The book I'm excited to read next
06:09is The Artist Way by Julia Cameron.
06:13Apparently Julia really teaches you
06:16how to get inside your head as an artist
06:19and take everything out and then release it
06:22and so I know she makes you do morning pages.
06:25She encourages you to go on artist dates
06:27and yeah, I'm excited to dive into it.
06:30What's my favorite book cover of all time?
06:34Am I allowed to say this one?
06:36Because I really wanted to make the best book cover
06:41of all time.
06:43But in all honesty, I think publishers
06:45need to do a better job of making cuter covers
06:49because there's so many great books that have ugly covers
06:52and people will never pick it up
06:54because the cover doesn't allure them in.
06:56My favorite place to read a book is definitely on the beach.
07:00That's actually where I read most of my books
07:02because the only time I ever have time to read a book
07:05is when I take some time off in summer.
07:08A famous person I would like to do a tell all.
07:13Has Brad Pitt done one yet?
07:14Because I will be reading that book in a second.
07:18This book is available at dear-love-book.com
07:24and it will look so good on your coffee table
07:27and I really hope that the stories that I share
07:30reach you in some way, teach you something
07:33and if not, you can just enjoy the photographs
07:36that I have in here.
07:37Ah, there's so many, there's literally so many.
07:40That concludes my Marie Claire shelf portrait.
07:44Don't forget to like and subscribe
07:45and I will see you guys soon.