Susan Huber

Salt Spring Island, Canada

About the Artist:
Susan Huber was born in Pensacola, Florida, USA, but grew up in a succession of cities, eventually settling in Carmel, California. She often photographed at Carmel Beach after school. Unknown to her, Ansel Adams observed her and came over later to the house asking to see her prints. Ansel was complimentary in a way to encourage a budding photographer to continue her dreams.

While Susan was in her last year of secondary school, her family moved to Guanajuato, GTO, Mexico. There she learned Spanish from her tutor who was an accomplished photographer of baroque churches and local architecture. She graduated from from the Universidad de Guanajuato, GTO, Mexico with a Bacc. Pre-Medicine and moved back to Carmel after spending five glorious art-filled years in Mexico.

She obtained a B.Sc., Physical Therapy from CSUF-Fresno with a minor in Fine Arts. After graduation, she began a long collaboration with other photographers in the Monterey Bay Area, eventually enrolling in Robert Dawson's classes.

Robert's classes provided the groundwork in the history of traditional and alternative processes. Seminal moments were of seeing the prints of the 19th Century photographers such as Atget, Baldus and Marville on Albumen and; meeting local contemporary – documentary landscape photographers. Her class worked together to put forth an exhibition in San Francisco to prevent L.A. Power from draining Mono Lake, a prime bird habitat. The Supreme Court ruled in favor to prevent further water drainage. This demonstrated that powerful organizations can be made accountable through a visual medium.

While attending a workshop with Linda Connor she was encouraged to use an 8" x 10" camera as Linda stated it would make for larger contact prints. Susan contacted R.H. Phillips and had the camera made for her - it is her primary camera. Using large format ensures a contemplative approach; a quiet time with the mind towards ideas that appeal to the photographer.

A chance encounter with a dinosaur bone in the Canadian Badlands led to her being selected as a field experience volunteer for the Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller, AB, a renowned institution in the field of Paleontology. There she met the first Paleos allowed out of China to work with the Museum. Paleontology and Geology allows her to see how local, extensive formations from the ancient seas and glaciers effect the lands she photographs. Each landscape tells a story.

Recent projects with assistance of the B.C. Council of Arts will focus upon documentation of the rural churches in the Prairies and in B.C.. Some of the primarily Russo-Ukrainian churches in these remote communities have already disappeared due to lack of funds for maintenance and lack of people due to unpredictable agrarian futures.