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Biography

Susan Abrams’ training as an artist has been self-directed rather than formal. After a career counseling children and their parents, she decided to devote herself to her development as an artist. She has been a member of a cooperative art gallery in Philadelphia for over 6 years and has a solo and group exhibition history in venues in the Northeast, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Print Center, the Lancaster Museum of Art, and the Humanities Gallery at Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY. Abrams was awarded first place in 2003 , fourth place in 2005, and selected for publication in 2004 in the Photo Review International Competition. In 2005, she won First Prize for Photography in Art of the State (PA), and "Hand Papermaking for Photography" appeared in the December/January 2004 issue of Camera Arts magazine. The artist’s work is included in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Free Library of Philadelphia, McGraw Hill, and Merck & Company, as well as other private and corporate collections in the United States and Great Britain.

Artist Statement

I am a photographer and a papermaker. My work melds the spontaneous playfulness and fluidity of papermaking with the discipline inherent in the darkroom. Making my own paper accentuates the organic nature of the work. The complex interaction of paper and process results in individually unique, textural, sensual prints. A fascination with natural cycles, patterns, and textures runs through my art and seeks to capture the beauty of a still point in life's chaos.

Some subjects are better suited to printing on other media and I have work that is printed on standard papers (silver or digital) and on nontraditional materials such as silk. The project and the imagery determine my choices and I always attempt to have my printing method and media enhance the final piece.