Susan Ressler's Projects

Covering a half-century of dramatic change in the socio-political and arts scene, Ressler’s Photographs is an important document that, through vivid images and an engaging narrative, provides insight and meaning to the world we live in today. Global in scope, but with a focus on the Americas, the book begins in the tumultuous 1960s when the author was a young college student who photographed the counterculture, street life on New York City’s gritty Lower East Side, and icons such as Andy Warhol and later Nina Simone, among others. The book then catapults us into a First Nations reserve in Quebec, Canada, as we follow Ressler’s trajectory from novice ethnographic image-maker to mature photographic artist–– a career that parallels and comments on the growth of financial empires and consumerism as well as shifting trends in photography itself. Susan Ressler Photographs is an impressive retrospective that traces 50 years of artistic development. It includes six major bodies of photographic work introduced in her own words, complemented by two interpretive essays: one by Eve Schillo, Associate Curator in the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and the other by Mark Rice, American Studies scholar and professor at St. John Fisher University near Rochester, New York. Although some of the images appear in Ressler’s earlier Daylight monographs (Executive Order and Dreaming California), many are published here for the first time. These include At Owner’s Risk (her Canadian First Nation photographs), From Analog to Digital (an account of photography’s transition from film to virtual electronic media), and Beyond Borders (work from Europe, Asia and Israel). The book ends with American Stories: Chile and Argentina (Patagonia), and coming home to Taos, New Mexico, where Ressler lives and continues

From the late 1970s, a critique of corporate America made in the CEO offices, boardrooms and lobbies of the top Fortune 500 companies, photographed mostly in Los Angeles and the Mountain West.

Made in San Diego, CA, known as "America's Finest City" since the slogan was first coined in 1971, this portfolio represents work created during January 2014. The portfolio is part of an ongoing series titled "High End," begun in 2010 and shot in exclusive shopping venues primarily in Southern California. A selection can be previewed on Blurb at: http://blur.by/1eb9IpH

A brief "teaser" for a new series made during Carnaval in Sardinia, these few initial photographs are from Lula and Gavoi. SOS BATTILEDDOS OF LULA, a Pagan propitiation rite that honors Dionysus, is a profound and often violent festival with a sacrificial victim, whips and blackface. But the idea is to appease the gods and ensure a good year. I've also included a few images from the"Sortilla 'e Tumbarinos" in Gavoi, which is a spring celebration with music and dance. I will be adding more!

Part memoir and part spiritual journey, Understanding Israel asks, “Who am I, and What does Israel mean to me?” But for most, my photos spark one burning question: "In what ways can we understand Israel today?" These images are selected from a much larger book project that includes approximately 100 photographs designed to convey the paradoxes and contradictions of the Jewish state: a homeland for the Jewish people, and yet an occupier of contested territory. The book shares my personal story, my quest, my grief and my wonder, but is most of all a plea for peace.