Susan Fenton
North Dakota Museum of Art



Susan Fenton

1cone_helmet 1folded_paper 1pleated_mask 1white_satin_helmet

SUSAN FENTON: HAND COLORED PHOTOGRAPHS
From 1991 through 1994 Fenton taught in Japan. While living there Fenton assembled a
series of visual metaphors that address the quiet strength of the Japanese people, as well as the fetishistic and ritualistic iconography of their culture, both traditional
and contemporary. In her photographs, Fenton assembles visual metaphors that she hopes
will address the quiet strength of the Japanese people as well as the fetishistic and
ritualistic iconography of their culture, both traditional and contemporary.
Fenton's images involve a shallow and tightly composed space with solitary models who
remain anonymous. Appropriated headgear, body treatment or props are her own creations,
made solely for the sake of the photograph with primary concern for composition and
esthetic impact. Fenton's photographs are printed on fiber-based paper. They are then
brown-toned and finally hand-painted with photographic oil pigments.