Susan Burnstine Bio

Susan Burnstine is an award winning fine art and commercial photographer originally from Chicago now based in Los Angeles. Susan is represented in galleries across the country, widely published throughout the world and has also written for several photography magazines, including a monthly column American Connection for Black and White Photography Magazine (UK), F-Stop Magazine, Fraction Magazine and Photo Eye Magazine. Nominated for the 2009 Santa Fe Prize for Photography and winner of various awards including B&W Magazine’s 2008 Portfolio Spotlight Award. Burnstine teaches workshops around the country, has been a juror for Photolucida’s Critical Mass, The New Orleans Photo Alliance, Texas Photographic Society and has been invited to curate for select galleries.
Susan is one of the few photographers today avidly pursuing alternative processes to create an idiosyncratic and deeply personal visual landscape. Initially, Burnstine sought to find a way to portray her dream-like visions entirely in-camera, rather than with post-processing digital manipulations. To achieve this, she has created twenty-one handmade film cameras and lenses that are frequently unpredictable and technically challenging. The cameras are primarily made out of plastic, vintage camera parts, and random household objects, with single-element lenses molded from plastic and rubber. Learning to overcome their extensive optical limitations required Burnstine to rely on instinct and intuition—the same tools that are key when attempting to interpret dreams.