About Photography by Susan Rennie
I began taking photographs in the late sixties during my doctoral candidacy at Columbia University. (The first imageI sold was to TIME in 1968. Taken with a Nikon F, it was a photograph of the student upheavals at the University. I spent my earnings buying my second lens.) In 1970 my photographs of museum goers were used to illustrate the Museum of Modern Art Annual Report. The next year I studied with Lisette Model, a great photographer who mentored Diane Arbus. Photography was much more attractive to me than political philosophy, but life intervened with the advent of the Women’s Movement, taking me in a different direction than art.
After a long career as an academic and women’s health activist I retired in 2005, and resumed my true avocation — photography. Having lived in Venice, California since 1976, I decided to take this historic, idiosyncratic community as a subject of image making. This resulted in two exhibitions: The Gates of Venice, and The Dogs of Venice.
In turn the latter project was the progenitor of another photographic enterprise: a documentary celebration of the world of dogs. But since my eye is omnivorous I continue to shoot the manifold aspects of what I see around me — from the scenic marvels of Death Valley to serendipitous images with a plastic “toy” camera.
My “philosophy of photography” is a little grandiose; perhaps my "personal perspective" is a better description of my approach to photography. My eye has always been a roving camera, unconsciously framing a scene — “Oh, that’s a great picture,” or “where’s the camera?” Today my aim as a photographer is to master the digital camera and digital studio so that I can reproduce what my eye sees as authentically as possible. For me composition, light, color have operated mostly intuitively — from my right brain — so that often I am surprised at a particularly felicitous integration of those elements. (More recently, studying with the great Jay Maisel, I have become more self-conscious about these elements in image making). I rarely use Photoshop — but do the kind of minimal enhancements I used to apply in my traditional darkroom: lessen highlights, bring up shadow areas, crop. I shoot with a Nikon DSLR 300, principally using the amazing 17-200mm Nikkor lens. For some shoots I rent one of Nikon’s “bazooka” lenses, such as the 400mm. I always carry a camera, even if it is a point-and-shoot or my Harinezumi 2mp plastic toy camera.
After a long career as an academic and women’s health activist I retired in 2005, and resumed my true avocation — photography. Having lived in Venice, California since 1976, I decided to take this historic, idiosyncratic community as a subject of image making. This resulted in two exhibitions: The Gates of Venice, and The Dogs of Venice.
In turn the latter project was the progenitor of another photographic enterprise: a documentary celebration of the world of dogs. But since my eye is omnivorous I continue to shoot the manifold aspects of what I see around me — from the scenic marvels of Death Valley to serendipitous images with a plastic “toy” camera.
My “philosophy of photography” is a little grandiose; perhaps my "personal perspective" is a better description of my approach to photography. My eye has always been a roving camera, unconsciously framing a scene — “Oh, that’s a great picture,” or “where’s the camera?” Today my aim as a photographer is to master the digital camera and digital studio so that I can reproduce what my eye sees as authentically as possible. For me composition, light, color have operated mostly intuitively — from my right brain — so that often I am surprised at a particularly felicitous integration of those elements. (More recently, studying with the great Jay Maisel, I have become more self-conscious about these elements in image making). I rarely use Photoshop — but do the kind of minimal enhancements I used to apply in my traditional darkroom: lessen highlights, bring up shadow areas, crop. I shoot with a Nikon DSLR 300, principally using the amazing 17-200mm Nikkor lens. For some shoots I rent one of Nikon’s “bazooka” lenses, such as the 400mm. I always carry a camera, even if it is a point-and-shoot or my Harinezumi 2mp plastic toy camera.
