Suzanne Camarata | Photography
Art for Sale
10% of all sales go directly to Henderson County COVID-19 Response Fund
Click on image for details.
A simple portrait with your phone
Q&A with Suzanne
1. What is your chosen medium?
Photography
2. How did you start your career in art?
I started taking night classes in photography while living in SF in the early 90s while working for Kaiser Permanente. I was hooked! Eventually I started a career as a freelance photographer.
3. What informs your art?
Inspiration from what I am reading, seeing outdoors in nature, or at an art exhibit. Conversations with people are often a source of ideas.
4. What jobs you have worked other than as a professional artist?
I once worked for a company that made English language tapes for Japanese students, Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, the Crate & Barrel team in California and Texas, and I worked for a specialty paper store in Boston, to name a few.
5. What questions do you ask yourself when starting to work?
What is my hope for this body of work? Is this strictly to learn a new technique or would I like to show this work eventually?
6. Do you have a quote that’s important to you displayed in your studio? If so, what is it?
“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” - Eleanor Roosevelt
7. Which artist (living or not) would you most like to invite for dinner? What would you serve?
The photographer Roy DeCarava (1919-2009). I stumbled across his work at a retrospective of his work at The Museum of Modern Art. He had such a passion for photographing the every day lives of African Americans in Harlem where he lived and worked. He also photographed the jazz greats of the 1950s. Hmmmm…probably a Korean comfort meal of rice, fish, tofu stew, pickled vegetables and fruit.
8. What has been your most unusual request for your art?
This has to do with a photo job. I had just finished doing a holiday portrait shoot when the wife asked me take a photo of them with her camera. I was new to the photo biz and wanted to please. Guess which photo ended up on their holiday card?! This is why they were wealthy and I am not. =)
9. What music are you listening to these days?
Diana Krall and Édith Piaf
10. What is on your nightstand?
A b/w photo of my birth mom. Gardening magazines and the book, The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World by Melinda Gates.
“There is an aesthetic infused in the culture of Japan that expresses itself in the everyday experience – from the presentation of food to the wrapping of a gift, from the design of a package to the placement of flowers. In Japan, everything is done thoughtfully, every detail considered and proportioned to how things are viewed. This extends to the visual arts, music and theater – even to the sport of Sumo wrestling. Always, less is more. That orderly aesthetic is calming to me and informs and influences how I work as an artist.”
About Suzanne
A native of South Korea, she was raised in Japan before coming to the United States where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Rochester. She went on to study photography at the Art Institute of Boston. Subsequent travels throughout India and Mexico resulted in photographic essays of those journeys. She taught photography at MIT and, since 1995, has worked as a freelance photographer. Her work is included in both private and corporate collections.