SUSAN DERGES
Susan Derges (born 1955, London) completed her postgraduate studies at the Slade School of Fine Art before continuing her research at Tsukuba University in Japan. She creates visual metaphors exploring the relationship between the self and nature, capturing both visible and invisible scientific and natural processes - the physical appearance of sound, the evolution of frogspawn or the reflection of the moon and stars on water. Living in Japan gave Susan an awareness of how to become a co-author with nature rather than just an observer. For the River Taw series (1998-2000), created in Dartmoor, Devon, where Susan now lives and works, she submerged photographic paper into the river and caught the image with a single flash of light, thereby capturing the memory of the river in that instance, taking with it leaves, rocks and sediment. This gave her a sense of belonging to, and a further connection with nature.
Whilst her practice reflects the work of the earliest pioneers of photography it is also contemporary in its experimentation and awareness of both conceptual and environmental issues. For over four decades she has consistently found new ways to express her personal preoccupations concerning the relationship between photography, water, and the environment in a constantly evolving body of compelling, diverse imagery.
Unsurprisingly the moon and its seemingly constant but magical monthly transformations became an inspiration for the Moon Series (2003-05), watching the juxtaposition of trees and branches through the skyline with the stars above. Photographing the moon is difficult for most, but Susan catches the different effects of colour it can produce during its various stages: a full moon gave a blue tint whereas a new moon tinted the paper green
Her artistic practice has involved cameraless, lens based, digital and reinvented photographic processes as well as video. The metaphors her work has been concerned with encompass subject matter informed by physical and biological science, as well as landscape and abstraction.
Major publications include Woman Thinking River, 1998, Liquid Form with an essay by Professor Martin Kemp, 1999 and Kingswood, 2002 by Photoworks.
Susan Derges is visiting professor in Photography at the University of Plymouth and was awarded the 2025 Royal Photographic Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship. Collections holding her work include Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Brooklyn Museum; Art Institute of Chicago; J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
