About
Susan was strongly influenced by her father who escaped pre-war Germany, and by her own early upbringing in Cleveland during the 1960s. Her father held a profound love for music and art. Saturdays were filled with ballet rehearsals, visits to the museum, and trips to the Cleveland Orchestra. I learned from my father what it meant to have a passion and the discipline it took to learn, struggle, and eventually, succeed.
Her passion for modern dance was ignited as an undergraduate at Ohio State University. She moved to the West Village in the 1970's on a modern dance scholarship with Merce Cunningham. Several years later, Susan earned an M.A. in Dance from Columbia Teacher’s College, specializing in the application of Laban Movement Analysis to dance.
Sensitive to the possibilities of motion and gesture, Laban’s Movement Effort Shape infuses her visual stories with a nuanced expression. Her subjects’ efforts resonate along the interplay of form and light. She navigates the photographic terrain, observes the strength of ‘flow’, the dynamic tension of ‘weight’ and the varied mood of ‘light’. Each photograph becomes choreography, capturing the essence of movement.
Her work has been featured in 'Docu Magazine,' Finland, issue #34, Landscape of New York City; Black Box Gallery, Portland, Oregon, New York City Salsa Dance Club; New York Latin American Art Triennial, Governors Island, New York City, New York City Salsa Dance Club and Last Days of Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus; Soho Photo Gallery, New York City, New York, Acrobat, From the series Last Days of Ringling Brothers & Bailey