Bio      

Susan Bowen lives in New York City and is traditionally known for her overlapping multiple exposure panoramas, which she shot with a plastic camera. In 2008 Susan completed a 48’ public art mural for a school in New Haven, Connecticut, and the previous year she created four murals for the Department of Transportation in Minnesota. In 2007 she was profiled in Photo Techniques and Light Leaks magazines, published in Light and Lens: Photography in the Digital Age, and received an award in the Pilsner Urquell International Lucie Awards. In 2006 and 2010 Susan had four images published in Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity, a book by Michelle Bates. Her 24 solo shows have been in New York, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh, Reno, Dayton, San Marino, Lubbock, Georgia, and Tennessee. Susan’s more current projects include a series on people walking and explorations of objects, spills, and other ephemeral things she finds on the street.

Statement

Chance has played a role in all my photography, and I am most inspired by life in the city. My “holgaramas” dealt a lot with motion and the surprise of what the in-camera overlapping technique would bring. The “People Walking” series also involved chance and movement and are very much an urban experience.

My recent work is more quiet and contemplative. The subjects in my various “looking down” series are ephemeral in nature and would likely go unnoticed by people walking by. What might be considered trash to others is to me an opportunity to suggest an abstract way of seeing and of finding beauty in our otherwise messy environment.