‘[Susannah] has this ability to create stories through everyday objects that really speak to the viewer, and a real eye for composition, light, color, and beauty. Her photos are very transporting.’ ~ Holly Becker, decor8

I’ve been taking photographs all my life, but the first roll of film I shot with any artistic intention was developed in 1992; I was 19 years old and for the next three years I locked myself in the darkroom, practising my craft at art school; I didn’t own a computer and digital photography had yet to take over the world. I tried fashion shoots, portraits, reportage and self-portraiture, the latter the form that most inspired me. I took part in a couple of group exhibitions; I racked up a lot of student debt too.

Between then and now there have been many cameras, many rolls of film and many years in the pursuit of other paths; now I’m back behind the lens I’ve realised that I may have learned the basics at college and indulged my artistic whims, but it’s my curiosity about the world, and my understanding of my place in it, that now informs my work. It doesn’t matter what I saw then or will see in the future – what matters is what I see now… Today.

I shoot Polaroids and film using my collection of vintage cameras; I’m drawn to beauty and asymmetry, decay and whimsy. I explore how the world around us holds memories and familiarity, the ever-present backdrop to our individual stories. I shoot to tell those stories; I shoot to record the magic I see around me, often in the most unexpected places. I shoot because I bloody love it – it’s like breathing to me.