Susan May Tell | Images from five bodies of work, 1974 - 2012

These images are chosen from five (5) bodies of work, two (2) from each. The earliest photograph was taken in 1974. The latest in 2012.

Their structured lyricism unites them.

• Structured Moments

• REAL / UNREAL: urban landscapes of the 1980’s

• A Requiem: Tribute to the Spiritual Space at Auschwitz

• Haiku: Christo’s Gates

• SEEN AND FELT: Appalachia, 2012

The 1974 photo was taken six months after buying my first camera, a Topcon SLR. I learned the rudiments of developing film and making prints in the darkroom. Gratefully, my very first instruction in photography was during a weekend workshop with Garry Winogrand in 1977 at the International Center of Photography. I say “gratefully” as his words echo verbatim in my head all the time. He generously looked through a box of fifty 8×10” work prints and was incredibly encouraging.

In 1978-79, I had two wonderful instructors during a year spent in San Francisco: Larry Sultan and Minnette Lehmann.

Back in New York, I studied with Helen Gee who became a mentor and a lifelong friend. In the 1950’s, she opened Limelight, the very first gallery devoted exclusively to photography. Her book Limelight: A Memoir is a page-turning must read.

André Kertész, my favorite photographer of all time, became an unofficial teacher. We’d pore together over boxes of his prints. Referring to my work, his high praise was: “You have the feeling. You have the composition.”

The work continues to be exhibited, including multiple solo exhibitions.

Bio

Susan May Tell’s work has been called haunting, powerful and lyrical. She is a poet with a camera. A highly sought after speaker, portfolio reviewer and juror of fine art photography competitions, Tell is known in the photography community for her celebrated 50-year career in photography—both fine art and journalistic—as well as her support of emerging artists.

An Artist in Residence at MacDowell, Yaddo and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Smithsonian Museum includes her work in its Samuel Wagstaff Collection and Columbia University collected her Oral History and Catalog of Works.

Solo exhibitions include the Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale; Griffin Museum of Photography; University of California/San Francisco; Schumacher Gallery/Capital University; and Avenue B Gallery.

Scores of brick-and-mortar galleries coast-to-coast exhibit her work. Her work is currently on view at Gallery 811 and the Stanton Street, both in New York, the SouthEast Center for Photography (SEC4P) in South Carolina and online at The Photo Review. Since January 2023, it was shown at the Christopher Art Gallery, Prairie State College in Illinois, View Art Center in Old Forge in New York and again at the SEC4P. The SEC4P is including her work in a September exhibition as well. Her photo won First Place for Fine Art: Nature at the Julia Margaret Cameron Awards as well as receiving numerous Honorable Mentions. Tell’s work has gratefully been included in several previous exhibitions at South [x] SouthEast Gallery, including two of its most recent — Where We Live and Southern Landscapes : Southern Light, both of which are being featured in the Summer Issue of SxSE Magazine.

Tell’s photographs have been featured in ARTnews, New York Times, L’Oeil de la Photographie among many other influential publications. Elizabeth Avedon included her work in “fossils of time + light” — a book she curated and designed for the Detroit Center for Contemporary Photography. Malcolm Daniel awarded her First Place for an exhibition he curated for the Barrett Art Center. Recent online presentations include the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Jewish Art Salon and Projections Live curated by Frank Meo.

After two solo exhibitions of her personal fine art work in 1982, Tell began a celebrated 25-year career as a photojournalist, working for pre-eminent publications such as the New York Times, Time and LIFE Magazines. She spent a decade overseas, based in Cairo and Paris. Her stories include the women fighters of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front, Iran-Iraq war, NBA Finals, actors, politicians, and more. She spent an amazing decade as a staff photographer and photo editor for her hometown, in-your-face, newspaper, the New York Post, before being inexorably and irresistibly drawn back to focusing on her personal work.

More about Susan and her work can be found at https://www.susanmaytell.com/

Equipment: Without doubt the SONY RX100-VII is, without doubt, her favorite, preferred, camera. It is this SONY camera she relied on to produce the recent personal work that is being exhibited in the many exhibitions above. This SONY allows her to create images in camera that require no post-production. Previously she relied on the Leica M6 rangefinder camera with a 35mm f2 Summicron lens for much of her personal fine art work.