Sari Goodfriend

Director of Alumni Programs and College Persistence

My first name is Sari. It's pronounced "Shahree". It's Hungarian for Sarah. Yes, I'm a good friend and yes, it's my real name.

I’ve been a professional photographer since 2003 but started making photos long before that. I was raised by art dealers, so it’s in my blood. I majored in Art History and French at Smith College and was fortunate to also spend a year at the Sorbonne in Paris. I have studied photography off and on since I was 12, including a wonderful summer at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography in Montana. My formal training was really on the job though, as I assisted a wide variety of commercial photographers in NYC and also worked for various newspapers in Litchfield County, CT before going out on my own as a one-woman show. I shoot assignments of all types - advertising, corporate, editorial, and private commissions. I'm constantly working on personal projects alongside my beloved assignment work, the most long term being The "Silverheads" project, viewable in the Portfolio section of this site.

Since 2007, I've been a volunteer teacher and mentor at NYC SALT, a small, but highly successful non-profit which serves low income high school students in an after-school program capacity. We teach photography and we also help students through the college application process and beyond, ensuring that they all graduate from college and become employed. Basically, we aim to widen their vision of what's possible, literally and figuratively, and make sure they are the best part of the next generation of leaders. It is incredibly rewarding to know that I've actually helped change the path of young lives toward a more successful future.