Biography

Susan Huber was born in Pensacola, Florida. She grew up mainly in Carmel, California and in Guanajuato, GTO, Mexico.

Susan received a Kodak Brownie when she was eleven years old and has not been without a camera since.

Ansel Adams observed her using the Brownie at a Carmel beach, came to her home to see the developed prints, and told her mother, "She will be a fine photographer one day."

Early promise became lifelong passion. Some of her photographic "chops" have been earned through study with Henry Gilpin, Robert Dawson, Jay Dusard, Bruce Barnbaum and Linda Connor.

Susan was introduced to large format photography in the 1980s, and enthusiastically embraced contact printing on printing-out paper, as it is the process closest to albumen and displays a long range of tones and colours. Currently, she creates gold-or platinum-toned 8x10 inch contact prints on printing-out paper.

The power of photography as a visual medium came into focus when she participated in photographic exhibitions aimed at preventing the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power from draining Mono Lake, CA, a prime bird habitat, and preserving oceans off the west coast of British Columbia, where she currently resides.

A long association with the Alberta Paleontological Society and the Royal Tyrrell Museum was seminal in introducing her to the badlands and other drylands, the focus of her "Quiet Lands" project. She embarked on the project to show people the lands bordering the prairies, which are now threatened by gas, oil, and coal exploration. These quiet lands may at first appear mundane and uninteresting, but within their boundaries is a wealth of beauty and culture which shelters historic trade routes, cherished parklands and some of the largest aboriginal pictographs found in North America.

Susan recently won a British Columbia Arts Council travel assistance project grant to help her document rural and orthodox churches in Alberta and British Columbia. She hopes to both increase awareness of heritage amongst farming communities, which often trace their origins to Canada's first Ukrainian settlers, and to prevail upon the Alberta government to preserve that heritage. Susan is a supporter of the grassroots associations trying to maintain these churches before they disappear.

Current projects include a mentor program for emerging photographers from the U.K. and Canada and collaboration with a musician to use photography for healing arts and meditation.

Susan's photographs have been published in Alternative Photography: Art and Artists, Edition One.

Education: Susan has a Bachelor of Science, Physical Therapy, California State University of Fresno, with a minor in Fine Arts, as well as a Bacc.de Pre-Medicina, Universidad de Guanajuato, GTO, Mexico.

Susan lives on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Artist Statement

Working in photography allows me to be fully receptive to the lands around me. I can see, smell and hear the elements. Merely documenting the lands is not my goal; I want to bring out the essence of the seemingly mundane subjects teeming with powerful elements.

I am most excited with seeing the light on the Prairies—a special luminous source of inspiration. I like the slow-paced life, the natural rhythms of the seasons and the local peoples' love of their lands. No matter where I go—if I meet someone from the Prairies and talk about their lands—their faces light up and they become animated.

I am especially interested in the juxtapositon of natural forms—hard edges and soft elements, the churches greeting sunlight, the communities growing around those churches, the community halls calling for leadership in preserving the history of these towns—some are as small as ten people. Yet, somehow the communities survive with a proud and fierce determination to preserve their way of life.

My passion is the portrayal of these quiet lands and sacred structures in such a way that the viewer will not only "see" them with new eyes, but embrace them.

What more could any photographer want?

To see Susan's images in our online gallery, click here.

To visit Susan's web site, click here.

To contact Susan via e-mail, click here.