Interview with Susan Platt

Susan Platt is a fine art photographic artist from Stockton, California. She fell in love with photography at the age of eight, when her brother gave her a Kodak Brownie Box film camera. She carried her camera with her everywhere she went and began creating images of her family and friends. When she reached high school, she attended photography classes, worked on the newspaper and was photo editor of her high school yearbook. Susan’s photographic career has spanned 38-years.

She has been involved in the photographic industry, from working as a photographic assistant and staff photographer at a portrait studio, to a portrait and wedding studio owner/photographer, to a fine art photographic artist. During her portrait and wedding photography years, Susan taught numerous classes in studio portrait and environmental portrait studies and her style and approach to wedding photography in artistic and technical ways. Her photographs have been published in Pet Life Magazine and Craft & Vision Magazine. Susan's work has been exhibited at PhotoLA, throughout California, Barcelona, Spain at the FotoNostrum Gallery and the Artifact Gallery in NYC (Sept. 2024).

How would you describe yourself and your artwork?

Many would consider me a bit eclectic; be it my lifestyle, the music I listen to, the clothes I wear, the food I eat, to the photographs I make. Our lives are ever-evolving stories and I make storytelling photographs that provoke emotions and stimulate the viewers of my work.

How do you go about beginning a new piece? Do you have an idea already in mind, or do you start working with materials or sketches to find the departure point?

What speaks to me in the moment; what emotionally touches my soul at an instance; what excites me at that moment and from that point on, is when I begin to build a body of work of that subject, idea or theme. It could be the essence of a location-the beauty wild horses grazing in the openness of the high desert; how they engage with each other, or my camera lens. It could be a still reflection in a pond at sunset that is reminiscent of a painting by Monet.I become very specific and focused on that subject, for a week, month or maybe longer. I may be totally vested in birds of prey or landscapes for a few weeks or a few months. I feel this helps me avoid artist’s blocks and boredom in my work.

When do you think your most prolific time of day or week is?

The most prolific time of day for me is early in the morning. I can focus and concentrate without the hustle and bustle of my environment. I am awake and energized. This is my time to edit, plan, research, design, and/or go make photographs.

What is a barrier you as an artist overcame? Is there anything that enabled you to develop your work as an artist in your life?

I come from a wedding/portrait studio background. I began photographing weddings when I was 18. I learned that being a wedding photographer, also makes you a psychologist, mediator, event coordinator and sometimes part of the wait staff. I strived to make my brides, grooms, families and wedding party feel comfortable and enjoy the time set aside for the photographs. I worked 7 days a week for many years, which took a toll on me creatively and physically. I suffered from burnout. I closed my studio and did not pick up a camera for about five years. During those five years, I was able to reflect on my creative life, played around with oil painting and wrote a couple of short stories. When I decided to start photographing again, I made the photographs I wanted to make as an artist, not as commissioned event or portrait photographer. There were no groups of people that I had to manage or the bride who worried about how she looked; a groom that did not what to be photographed; or wedding party and family members showing up late to take photos with the bride and groom. Now, it is just me, my camera and what I see through my lens.

Did you have an idea of what you wanted to create right from the beginning?

Again, most of the time I photograph what speaks to me in the moment and how light and shadow play with an inanimate object, person, landscape, or whatever it is I see through my lens at the time. It sometimes is making something beautiful out of nothing. When I am working on a specific project, I will sketch out the photographs I want to create to tell whatever story that may be.

What is the meaning or creative inspiration for your work? We’re curious what the narrative or story is to what you are producing?

The creative inspiration for my work comes from observation. I always observe everything around me. I watch the light, how it baths a beautiful blooming flower in such a way that you can smell the fragrance it emits, make it come to life, how the sun rays beam down on a garden sculpture, or how backlit streaks of clouds look like an artist’s etchings in the sky. I like to think of the light as my paintbrush, and my film/camera sensor as my canvas. I manipulate the light with my lens choice and camera. I come from a film photography background and was taught to "get it right" on film so that when you develop and your print your work, it will be much easier. I have carried over that mindset when working with digital cameras; therefore, I do not have to spend a lot of time editing my work in Photoshop or Lightroom. I am also a realist in my work-what I photographed is what you see in the final print. In other words, I do not play around with layers upon layers of multiple images creating the final image of a full moon, let say, rising in the center of two skyscrapers, when, in reality, the moon doesn’t rise in that area-ever! It’s not real and it is not my style.

Besides your artworks, are there any other things in life that your voice as an artist may consider vital or valuable? What makes you joyful and creative, in other words?

Long drives while listening to music puts me in a creative mood. It really doesn’t have to be a long drive, I can be driving into work and in those 5 minutes, I can see something out of the corner of my eye that sends an idea or image straight to my brain, or I hear a song lyric that stirs some sort of emotion in me that gives me inspiration to create something that is inspired by that song lyric.

Are there any exhibitions or places where people can see these beautiful creations in person soon? Anything on the horizon?

I have several photography projects on the horizon. The project that is slated for completion by the end of 2022 is a photo-documentary about the Wild Horses of the American West. I have been working on this project for the last year and a half. I have a few more trips planned in order to finish the photography aspect of this project. This should be completed by late summer. I have completed many hours of research on wild horses and the areas they live. I have accepted an invitation for a solo show of my work at the Artifact Gallery in New York City. My solo show is scheduled for September 2024. This is something that I have worked hard to achieve and am grateful for this opportunity.

Website: https://www.sgplattimages.com/