Artist Statement
MARTIN LUTHER KING BLVD.
Martin Luther King led the first Negro non-violent demonstration and inspired people with his dreams of equality and freedom. In 2009, I embarked on a series of trips around the country to photograph along Martin Luther King Blvd in cities that had renamed streets to honor the civil rights leader. Like Robert Frank, I traveled the country recording everyday Americana—not the amber waves of grain or purple mountain majesties—but the dirt and grit of everyday life. All of my memories of the civil rights movement are in black and white. My photographs are black and white, recalling the imagery from that period.
Process Statement
My photography is project-driven, documenting my observations of the details of Americana. While there is much discussion of the regional differences of our country, I'm impressed with the similarities. I see that the same concepts, thoughts and impulses are found throughout the country with a variety of interpretations. I travel the country recording those interpretations. The photographs are selenium-toned silver-gelatin prints.
Susan Berger earned her BA degree in English at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana and studied photography at Columbia College in Chicago, IL and in the Master of Fine Arts photography program at the University of Arizona. She has trained with Jerry Uelsmann and Shelby Lee Adams, and from December 2007 until June 2009, she was studio and administrative assistant to Frank Gohlke, the noted landscape photographer. She has been awarded the Artist’s Project Grant by The Arizona Commission on the Arts.
Her work has been exhibited widely and is in the permanent collections of The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The Southeast Museum of Photography, Roosevelt University in Chicago and The Lishui Photography Museum of China.
Susan Berger’s photography is project-driven, documenting her observations of the details of Americana. While there is much discussion of the regional differences of our country, Susan is impressed with the similarities. She sees that the same concepts, thoughts and impulses are found throughout the country with a variety of interpretations. She travels the country recording those interpretations.
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