Statement
The Covid lockdown permitted me great deal of time in my garden and for long walks in the parks and Aqueduct trail near my home. I produced this series after observing the alarming decrease of the insect and small mammal population due to habitat changes. These observations made me want to celebrate nature and create Memento Mori to honor these endangered species.

During the Victorian era, photographs called Memento Mori were created to commemorate deceased loved ones. These photos, both beautiful and unsettling, exquisitely posed the dead in their finest clothes and surrounded by their favorite objects. The images were extremely popular in the mid 1800’s and were often the one opportunity to have a permanent likeness of a beloved family member.

For my series, Jenga, I’ve layered botanical and other materials, media and dyes on multiple sheets of glass that are separated by Jenga blocks. With each photo, created in camera, I feel that I too am creating Memento Mori to honor and memorialize insects and other small animals whose alarming decline due to habitat changes, pesticides, deforestation and global warming makes their recognition all the more poignant.  The series is named for the game of stacked blocks that ultimately collapse as supporting blocks are removed, one by one. It’s not hard to imagine our world crashing down like the Jenga blocks as the supports necessary to sustain us are removed.

All the insects or animals used in creating the photographs were either found in my neighborhood or purchased from a company that claims the specimens for sale were farm-raised and died of natural causes. – SR

Bio
Born in Washington, Pennsylvania, Richman now lives in Hastings on Hudson, a suburb of NYC. Her love affair with photography began her freshman year of college when she was forced to pick between art or math as a course elective. To the dismay of her parents who were hoping she would become a lawyer, she majored in Fine Arts with a focus on photography and upon graduation she began a successful career as a commercial photographer in Manhattan.

After years of photographing other people’s visions, she has evolved into an artist and educator. Prior to Covid, she was a teacher at The International Center for Photographer in NYC and is currently a member of the Upstream Gallery in NY.

Richman’s interests lay in observing what others overlook. Her photographs explore the link between existence, decay and loss, and they blur the difference between painting and photography. For the past decade, she has primarily focused on photographing images that explore the damage to our environment by creating images that capture and preserve the fleeting nature of our world. Through art she hopes to inspire people to look beneath the surface and to see something never seen before and to thereby inspire change.

Recent awards and recognitions include Finalist, 2021 Larry Salley Photography Award, ArtsWestchester; Best Of Show, 2020 Non Member National Juried Exhibition, Salmagundi Club; 2020 International Juried Exhibition Soho Photo Gallery. She was a Featured artist in 2021 in F Stop Magazine and in 2020 in Create Magazine. The New York Times and The Washington Post highlighted her work in an article in 2019 titled Elements Provide Inspiration at Architectural Digest Show.

Susan Richman CV
b. 1959, Washington Pennsylvania
Lives in Hastings on Hudson, NY

EDUCATION
George Washington University, Washington D.C. Bachelor of Art 1981
Art Center College of Design Pasadena Cal. Bachelor of Fine Arts 1983

EMPLOYMENT
Educator at International Center of Photography, NYC, NY 2011- present

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020 Jenga, Upstream Gallery, Hastings on Hudson, NY

2018 Re>Formations, Upstream Gallery, Hastings on Hudson, NY

2017 Ephemeral, Upstream Gallery, Hastings on Hudson, NY

2017 Transient, Martucci Gallery, Irvington, NY

2017 Transient, Upstream Gallery, Hastings on Hudson, NY

2014 Under Glass, Upstream Gallery, Hastings on Hudson, NY

AWARDS
Larry Salley Photography Award; Finalist, ArtsWestchester. Award is for Hudson Valley based photographers with a significant body of work demonstrating outstanding artistic merit.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 
2021 30th Anniversary Exhibition, Upstream Gallery, Hastings on Hudson, NY

2021 National Juried Photography Exhibition; Soho Photography Gallery NY, NY

2020 Summer Exhibition, Susan Richman and David Barnett, The Lodge At Woodloch Gallery, Hawley, PA

2020 National Juried Photography On line Exhibition; Soho Photography Gallery NY, NY

2020 From A Seed…The World Of Botanicals 2020; Second Place,New York Center For Photographic Art, NY, NY

2020 Altered States, Pleiades Gallery NY, NY

2020 Female In Focus, The Center For Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO.

2020 Water, International Juried Show; Honorable Mention, New York Center For Photographic Art, NY, NY

2019 Abstracted Reality, Atlantic Gallery, NY, NY

2019 Taking Pictures 2019, Black Box Gallery, Portland, Ore

2019 Glimpses of Our World Juried Exhibition, Salmagundi Club, NY, NY

2018 Abstract National Juried Photo Exhibition, SE Center, Greenville, SC

2018 Red, White and Blue, Upstream Gallery, Hastings on Hudson, NY

2018 Click Juried Photography Exhibition, Blue Door

2018 National Juried Photography Exhibition, Soho Photography Gallery, NY, NY

2017 Art In Our Time, Upstream Gallery, Hastings on Hudson, NY

2017 Ephemeral, Umbrella Arts Gallery, NY, NY

2017 Ephemeral, Affordable Art Fair, NY, NY

2016 River Art Exhibition, Dobbs Ferry, NY

2016 Conversation, Upstream Gallery, Hastings on Hudson, NY

2015 ICP Masters Class, ICP Education Gallery, NY, NY

2015 Hidden Yonkers, Blue Door Gallery, Yonkers, NY

2015 Show and Tell Seven, Blue Door Gallery, Yonkers, NY

2015 Influences, Upstream Gallery, Hastings on Hudson, NY

ART FAIRS
2019 Architectural Design Digest Show, Pier 94, NY, NY

2019 Art on Paper Art Fair, Pier 36, NY, NY

2018 Affordable Art Fair, Metropolitan Pavilion, NY, NY

PRESS
Constructed Images: Group Online Exhibition F Stop A Photography Magazine, February and March Issue

Jackie Lupo: Uncertainty Inspires New Artistic Direction, The Rivertowns Enterprise, vol 45 No#27 October 2, 2020

Kim Cook: Elements Provide Inspiration at Architectural Digest Show, AP, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fox Business News, APNews.com, Foxbusinessnews.com, NWITimes.com, https://www.journalnow.com, March 2019 – Kim Cook March 30, 2019

Art Of Collage Art Of Collage, Nancy Nikkal, vol 1 No#1 October 2018

Jackie Lupo: Photographer Captures Grandeur of Derelict Buildings, The Rivertowns Enterprise, vol 40 No#33 November 2015

The Gallery Scene: Susan Richman, Blogfinger.net, Posted By Paul Goldfinger, October, 2017 On Line

Hillari Graff: Richman’s Photos Yield “Unnatural Beauty” The Rivertowns Enterprise, vol 39 No#2 April 2014

 

View Susan Richman’s website.