Susan Fenton
Fatima with Ball (profile), 2004
Gelatin silver print
16 x 16"; matted and framed 24 x 24"

About her work
"Fenton's figures - silent, composed, aloof - represent aesthetic idealism," an art critic wrote. "By avoiding eye contact with the viewer, they maintain emotional distance and anonymity. While being gazed at, they do not gaze back."

Ms. Fenton's photographs investigated the human figure and selected objects, such as birds' nests and clods of earth with grass growing atop them. At times, she intermingled forms from nature with stark, white shapes. Her works were tightly composed in the studio. She painted lightly with oils over many of her photos, especially in the early part of her career.

"The art that Susan Fenton makes is classical and pure, and lacks any unnecessary elements," said John Thornton in a film describing her work. "She takes the raw and specific stuff of our world and structures a more perfect version of reality."

Bio
Susan Fenton (Philadelphia, PA, 1949 - 2018)

Susan Fenton exhibited regularly, both nationally and internationally, and was represented by galleries in Guatemala, Delaware, London, Chicago, and Philadelphia (Schmidt Dean Gallery in Philadelphia). Her awards included grants from the Independence Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Leeway Foundation, and residency grants at the Headlands Center for the Arts in California, LaNapoule Art Foundation in France and the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in Ireland.

She was a tenured Associate Professor of Photography at Saint Joseph's University.

www.susanfenton.com