Susan Aurinko, photographer and curator, has shown her work in solo exhibitions in France, Italy, India, as well as in the US. Her exhibition about India, entitled STILL POINT INDIA, which opened in February 2013 at Kriti Gallery in Varanasi, toured India’s largest cities, and is now available as a book. In 2007, the proposed cover image for the book STILL POINT INDIA won both a Jury and a Public Choice award from Px3 in Paris. Aurinko’s work appears on several book covers, including The Stranger Among Us, Ariel, Scar Tissue, and Slut Lullabies, and four of her photographs are included in the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s permanent collection. In addition, many of her images hang in private collections in France, Italy, India, Monaco, the UK, and across the US.

Aurinko’s “SEARCHING FOR JEHANNE” The Joan of Arc Project will be presented in a solo exhibition at LUMA (Loyola University Museum of Art) in Chicago in June 2017.

Aurinko is on the Advisory Committee of the International Photography Awards (Lucie Awards) and has been an IPA and Px3 Juror for several years.

ARTIST STATEMENT:
When I was in Art School, I studied design. I considered the world in terms of form, texture, and composition through a curriculum that was entirely in black and white for the first year. In addition to teaching me to make art that was pure and crisply defined, with no color to distract, it taught me to actually SEE in black and white, a trait that has been an ongoing gift to me as a photographer.
Later, I studied film, which I credit with creating the cinematic quality that weaves itself through the majority of my work. Life is a narrative, and I find that powerful images often seem to be the illustrations for works of fiction. Even though I am present at the moment I press the shutter, when I look at my images later, during editing, they often suggest stories to me that are not necessarily even related to the action being shot. The camera does not necessarily tell the truth, but it does tell stories.

Not being one to pursue classic scenes or famous vistas, I like to think of my work as postcards from my internal dialogue, souvenirs of moments I have shared with only my camera.