Susan Derges – Alder Brook

An image by Susan Derges

Susan Derges – Alder Brook

On Photography

In Alder Brook, Derges makes otherworldly images of watery surfaces, exploring the relationship between the self and nature.

Much of the work of Susan Derges (born 1955, London) revolves around the creation of visual metaphors exploring the relationship between the self and nature. She endeavours to capture 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. She is best known for her pioneering technique of capturing the movement of water by immersing photographic paper directly into rivers or shorelines. Recently she has begun working in the studio combining analog and digital techniques to create new forms and perspectives hitherto impossible to capture. Her practice reflects the work of the earliest pioneers of photography but is also contemporary in its experimentation and awareness of both conceptual and environmental issues.