Solo Show
Soho Photo Gallery, 15 White Street, NYC. 1/3 – 2/3/2018.
Reception: FRIDAY, January 5 (Rescheduled), 6 – 8 pm.

 
I began taking pictures of the ground in the messy winter of 2015, when we had frequent snow and ice. Because I was looking down a lot so as not to fall, I started documenting abstract shapes I would find along the way. These ‘ground pictures’ have been continued more recently on my Instagram feed (@susanbowenfoto); the upcoming January exhibit is of the images that started me on this path.

Artist Statement: “‘Street Abstractions’ is an exploration of the abstract shapes I find on the streets and sidewalks of New York City, mostly in the neighborhood where I live. Often created by leaks from garbage bags left at the curb, dropped liquids, residue of winter street salt, and the like, most people would see only ugliness… if they notice at all. I like to find beauty in these unexpected places.

The look of an abstract painting is what I’m trying to evoke. They vary as to the degree to which they have identifiable details, but it is the abstract graphic quality I’m looking for in these images.

Though my neighborhood is getting more gentrified (and destroyed) by the second… it is still not the cleanest of neighborhoods. I have found this to be of great benefit to me, as there is always something new to find spilled, dropped, or dragged on the sidewalks in just in the handful of blocks I typically wander.”

Solo Show
Soho Photo Gallery, 15 White Street, NYC, 6/7 – 7/1/2017.
Reception: Tuesday, June 6, 6 – 8 pm.

 
Gallery-wide show on the theme of the New York City character. My show, ‘In Your Face’, is 15 images shot with me walking nearly head-on into my subjects as they approach me. Find me in the upstairs left-hand gallery.

Also exhibiting are Norman Borden, Neil Lawner, Carol Julien, and Anthony Almeida… Come join us for this fun show.

Artist Statement: “The energy of the city, the density of crowds, is what inspires my various ‘people walking’ photographs. For this series, I am in motion as well as my subjects. I am as much as I dare walking head-on into my subjects as they approach me. I use a normal or slightly wide-angle lens, so I am only several feet away from my subjects at the “moment of impact”. For some reason I find this exhilarating.

It is no accident that I mostly shoot these pictures in Times Square or on Canal Street… as these are among the most pedestrian dense areas of the city. Crossing intersections is the most fruitful, as people are (rightfully) focusing on getting to the other side and maybe not so focused on their cell phones (or on the strange woman coming towards them). I am responding to people as moving shapes, as abstractions. I may be capturing the liveliness of humanity, but I do not want any picture to be “about the person”. I want my people to be anonymous and to represent us all. So if anyone were to stop me, I’d explain that the picture I just took of them really isn’t about them at all.”

 

Photo by Norman Borden
 

 

Solo Show
Soho Photo Gallery, 15 White Street, NYC. 4/6 – 4/30/2016.
Reception: Tuesday, April 5, 6 – 8 pm.

 
Gallery-wide show on the theme of photographers’ choice of different visual points of view. Each of the solo shows in the gallery record interesting visual qualities found in the mundane, commonplace world around us, when seen from a specific, physical point of view.

Included are ‘Looking Down’, ‘Looking Up’, ‘Looking Closely’, ‘Looking Through’.. and my exhibit, ‘Looking Narrowly’ (Bay #3). Come join us for this unique show.

With photographers Wayne Parsons and Ron Meisel at the opening.

 
Artist Statement: “I have done several sets of “People Walking” series with varying points of view. This group of images show very fragmented bits of people (and dogs), and the ground for the first time plays an important role. What is missing from the frame is as important, or more so, than what has been included. Bodies are moving in and out of the picture; where the people are going and why remains a mystery. But wherever they are headed, they move with purpose and at that fast pace for which New Yorkers are known.

These images foreshadow my later ground-oriented pictures (where I remove the human element entirely); I see these photos as a hybrid of the two bodies of work. The walking pictures are all about motion, the ground pictures are about moving slowly and paying attention. These “Looking Narrowly” images have a little of both, pulling the viewer in all sorts of directions.”